Memento Mori
by War Lioness
Summary: Jade Harmon, a deep black special operations operative, volunteers as a subject to test a cryogenic storage process and wakes up on a derelict space station. When rescue comes, will Jade be leaping out of the frying pan and into the fire? Or will she discover that despite the new technology, the aliens and the race of giant machines out to kill them all, things never really change.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** If you recognize it, it's not mine. All characters, settings and situations property of BioWare, EA Games and whoever else owns the bloody copyrights. I'm just playing in their sand box.

* * *

The first thing Jade noticed as she began her return to awareness was how cold she was.

_Like lying on a fucking block of ice,_ she thought groggily as she struggled through the cobwebbed tunnels of her mind to force her eyes open. Distantly she noticed an intermittent buzzing backed by a rapidly increasing, high-pitched beeping. Eventually the buzzing resolved itself into an understandable conversation, or at least half of one.

"She's regaining consciousness, How is that possible?" Jade thought the speaker might be a woman. _What the fuck is an Aussie doing in Arkansas? _

The answer rumbled back in some European language Jade had never bothered to learn.

"I don't care how much you've already given her! It will set us back six months if she wakes up, hit her again!"

More rumbling, louder this time, and more strident. Jade managed to crack one eye open but all she saw was glaring light and a couple of nebulous forms that might have been people.

"If she dies, we'll just advance another subject. We'll lose less time doing that than creating another prototype implant if she bollocks up this one by flooding it with adrenaline before it's grafted properly to her spine! We can't afford that kind of setback."

Mr. Rumbles apparently decided to acquiesce to the woman's demands because a moment later Jade was overwhelmed by the black velvet of unconsciousness.

The next time she woke was much less pleasant.

_Goddamn! 'D I sleep through a transfer to fucking Siberia? _

She was still cold, but this time at least, she was vertical, and much less drugged than she had been.

She opened her eyes then, with what _might_ have been described as a whine slammed them shut again at the intensity of the light.

_Right, the Doc warned there might be some photosensitivity when they thawed you out. Well only one way to get through that. Fortunately you're good at running into things head first Harmon. Now, let's open your eyes soldier._

She cracked her eyes a fraction then slowly, as they adjusted to the clinical lights, began to look around her.

_Hmm … some sort of pod, that's new. Must've slept through a transfer. Doc did say they were working on some new ways to preserve living humans before you went under._ She thought as she took in the glass pane less than six inches in front of her face. She began to flex her knees experimentally. _Muscle tone seems good, that's nice. I'd hate to have my first step out of this thing end up with me on my face. _

She brought her hands up to press against the glass. _Why aren't there any doctors here? You'd think they'd want to check on the patient._ She increased pressure until she felt a faint _click_ from the edges. Suddenly, the entire front of the pod swept up and Jade stumbled into the room.

"Fuck," she said as she stumbled over something that had been piled against the base of the unit. Her voice sounded rusty from disuse. She looked down.

"Oh, I guess that explains where all the doctors went."

The something she'd stumbled over turned out to be a prone body, old, dried blood soaked the front of the odd uniform it was wearing. There were more bodies sprawled around the room. Suddenly a whirring sound came from one corner, near what appeared to be a door, though it was like no door she'd ever seen before.

What she'd taken to be some sort of equipment stand suddenly unfolded itself into a bipedal robot.

"Target acquired." Intoned an emotionless and highly filtered female voice as the robot raised what was unmistakably a gun.

"Shit!"

Jade stumbled backward and took cover on the opposite side of the pod, looking frantically about for a weapon of some sort.

There!

Near the back wall it looked like someone had been performing maintenance because under a loose and dented vent cover was the familiar shape of a cast iron crowbar.

She tucked and rolled, sliding painfully into the wall before hefting the weighty tool. _Okay, _she thought peeking around the desk she'd taken shelter behind after the barrage of bullets died down. _Let's see if you can still fire that thing with no head._

The robot had continued advancing as it fired and her cover would be compromised in moments. So, rather than waiting for the thing to get a clear line of fire on her she stood up, planted her feet and made like Barry Bonds trying for home run number 73 back in aught-one.

She hit it so hard the damn thing's head rebounded off the near wall with enough force to send it nearly back to the opposite wall.

Predictably enough, the rest of the thing went stiff and started shuddering and jerking in the spray of sparks that erupted from its severed neck, then collapsed.

Breathing heavily, Jade looked down at the still smoking robot and relieved it of its strange sidearm.

"Thanks HAL." She mumbled and looked for some place to stash it on her person.

That was when she realized she was as naked as the day she was born.

A few minutes later, she'd managed to find pants and a shirt that both fit relatively well and weren't too terribly bloodstained. As she approached the door it opened automatically, startling her for a moment before she cautiously made her way into the hall behind it.

She ran into a couple more of the murderous robots as she began performing a methodical search of the facility, all the while wracking her brain and searching for clues as to where it might be located.

_Gotta find a way out of this shithole and back to civilization._ She thought as she rifled another desk for clues. _There's no fucking _paper_ here! What the hell kind of medical facility doesn't use paper? _She'd managed to start up some type of holographic display that sort of _looked _like a computer screen, but other than some indecipherable text it didn't show her anything useful and she couldn't figure out how the damn things worked.

She slumped against one wall giving in, for a moment to the exhaustion that plagued her. Her arm jostled a button on the desk and the shutters to the outside she'd taken as simple metal bulkheads rattled open.

On nothing.

An empty field of stars greeted her. No mountains, no plains, no oceans, no atmosphere. Nothing.

"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." She murmured to no one in particular as she attempted to absorb the fact that she was, impossibly, on a space station.

* * *

Author's Notes:

This story was originally posted to the Mass Effect Kink Meme under the title "Stolen Life".

The prompt for "Stolen Life" read as follows:

The prompt on the ME KMeme was as follows:

"Had this idea while thinking about Javik and his great losses (his people, their hope). I thought about what he and a human cryogenized in the 20-21th century only to be woke up 1-2 centuries later could say to each other, for if humanity hasn't been wiped out, the world is nothing like it was when the human was put to sleep (aliens, spaceflight, etc.). His family and friends are long dead, Earth is united behind the Alliance, no one knows the things he loved (movies, music, etc.) and, all in all, there is nothing for him in the world (or that's what he thinks). It gives him a sort of edge when dealing with Javik, and vice versa. Maybe they talk sometimes, when no one is looking, and list all the things they liked "in their time" or remember "the good ones" (memories). When they're at the end of their list, they find silence and comfort and no pity whatsoever, because the other understands.

(more !) cookies and cream for :  
- At some point, we discover that Human had a child. He was cryogenized when the kid was 8/10 year old and not being able to be there for his son or daughter eats at him. Despite that, he is insanely proud of his son/daughter, who stood and fought all his life by the values he taught him/her. The child didn't have any kid of his own (No family is no family :().  
- Human has an excellent pokerface. No sadness in his eyes or crying when he realizes that he lost something again, for example.  
- Human should have been "asleep" only 1-2-5-10-20y. If he had a health condition, maybe they just found a cure 5-10 years before, or maybe the facility he was in has been forgotten after the company's bankruptcy, a natural disaster and/or the cancellation of the military program it was part of. Well - point is, he wakes up 100/200 years late. (yea, more angst!)"


	2. Chapter 2

It had taken her nearly two days to figure out where the rations for the station's crew of corpses had been kept. But with judicious use of the crowbar, she managed to pry the front of the dispenser open and access what apparently passed for food these days.

It had taken her two weeks to find and decipher a manual on the strange weapon she'd taken from the robot she'd beheaded. If nothing else told her she'd been under far longer than the three years she'd agreed to, besides the fact she was on a fucking _space station_, it was the design of that weapon. So advanced she couldn't even begin to understand the progression from the gunpowder propelled weapons she knew and loved to this "mass accelerator" weapon. Fortunately the manual was written in a style she'd often heard described as "Army Proof," intended for rank amateurs.

After that, killing the damn robots that still roamed the halls of the ghost station became much, much easier. Which was fortunate; because she didn't think she could take much more of the shocks the blasted things delivered when they got too close to use their sidearms.

The same manual had given her a hint of just how _much_ time had passed since she first lay down in the cryo chamber and Doc. Forsythe gave her the shot that would help the transition from warm, living person to a human Otter Pop.

_Over a hundred and fifty years, Jesus that's a long-ass nap._

She was foraging for a few more rations to drag back into the hidey hole she'd found in the station's maintenance shafts. It seemed the robots either couldn't fit in the shafts, or weren't programmed to search them so it was as safe a place as any to live while attempting to figure out how to get out of this predicament. She'd found a pair of glove-things that she'd worn at first just to ward off the ever present chill of the station, but had discovered, completely by accident, that they also allowed her to interact with the holographic computers.

At first she'd been thrilled at the discovery, but then discovered that interacting with the computers did her no good if she couldn't even read two-thirds of what was on them. It seemed that everyone on the station wrote their reports in their home language and allowed the software to translate it into whatever language the reader needed it to be. She'd stumbled across at least six that were set to use the Cyrillic alphabet, two set to what looked like Hangul, and one in French.

_At least with the French one, I could understand one word in ten._ Jade thought wryly. She'd puttered around on that console, pushing buttons and clicking on things at random, until the heavy clanking steps of what she suspected was a _very_ large robot indeed began thundering down the hallway and she'd scampered back to her vent until it passed.

Suddenly a much louder rumble than she'd heard before echoed through the station. Curious, Jade took to the vents and headed toward the docking bay.

_'S the only place big enough for anything capable of causing that sort of ruckus to be. Wonder if that's good news, or bad,_ she thought as she wormed her way along passages that were uncomfortably tight, stopping at times to try to get a view of anything passing through the halls.

At first all she saw was a stream of the smaller robots heading the same direction she was, then, ahead she heard the distinctive sounds of a firefight.

_Halleluiah! Sounds like somebody's here to clean house!_ She cautiously crept around the area the battle appeared to be occurring in. She wanted to get a good look at these people before she just ran toward them with open arms.

She peered through a grate at her prospective saviors.

There were three of them, all trussed up into some type of bulky body armor. _Huh, makes sense I suppose. If what I read is right, these little pistols pack one hell of a punch. No way plain Kevlar'd hold up to that. Gotta have something stronger._

She watched as the three worked together like a well-oiled machine, always covering each other and moving in a way that spoke of long hours on the battlefield and under fire. It sort of reminded her of how she and Joe used to move when they were on ops that had gone to shit. After a moment, Jade shook herself from her reverie. The three below had finished the last of the robots and were preparing to move to another room, picking up spare ammo along the way. _Thermal clips_ she reminded herself. _Ammo comes in blocks now. Gotta replace the heat sink instead. Goddamn this future shit is hard to get used to._

Making a decision not to let the trio get away from her, Jade pushed open the vent she'd been looking out of and dropped head-first to the floor. She rolled and slowly came to her feet, hands held out and open at her sides, fully expecting the three gun barrels that had been trained on her.

"Howdy, I'm Master Sergeant Jade Harmon, 24th Special Tactics Squadron, United States Air Force. I hope to hell you all can help me get the fuck out of this place."


	3. Chapter 3

It was hard to gauge her rescuer's reactions through the bulky armor and helmets but at least they hadn't blown her head off yet.

Jade thought that might be a good sign.

Rather than trying to press the team for a reply right away, Jade let them take their time to assess her, while at the same time studying the people before her. They were a quite varied group. She would have bet her right arm the one on the left, the one holding what looked like a shotgun in the general vicinity of her eyebrows, was a male. She'd never seen shoulders that broad on any woman – barring a few Olympic-level weightlifters she's shared a few drinks with in London a couple of years ago. The one in the center could be either an athletic woman or a slightly built man but the slight contouring of the chest plate had Jade leaning more toward "woman". On the right … everything about the tall figure was _wrong_. Too tall, too top heavy, too few digits on those long arms, weird misshapen helmet.

About the time Jade's mind was stuttering to a stop trying to figure out what kind of person could possibly fill out that bizarre armor, the one in the middle, apparently the one in charge of the operation, reached to hook her rifle on her back.

"Air Force, huh," She grunted as she removed her helmet, shaking chin-length red-brown hair out of her eyes. "You know they were decommissioned and rolled into the Alliance nearly 40 years ago, right?"

The others, taking their cue from the woman also lowered their weapons, but didn't stow them. The big one on the left did remove his helmet one-handed though, confirming Jade's suspicions as to his gender, before resuming a relaxed but watchful pose.

"Not really, but I figured something of the sort, considering I'm on a space station that seems to have played host to a number of different nationalities." In spite of the other woman's relaxed posture, Jade maintained her non-threatening posture. She didn't make it this far just to get ventilated by a gorilla with an itchy trigger finger. "Nations that wouldn't usually work together without something _really_ impressive motivating them. Sure the Koreans and the Russkis have a history, but the _French_? That's a little hard to believe. "

The woman's brows furrowed in confusion at Jade's comment.

"Look," Jade sighed, suddenly exhausted by the events of the day. "I'd love to discuss the finer points of late 20th Century international political intrigues with you, but you sort of interrupted my ever so tasty lunch of unidentifiable paste with your firefight. You going to pull me out of this shithole or what?"

The redhead regarded Jade thoughtfully for a moment before speaking.

"Perhaps, but I want to know how you managed to get _onto_ a space station that I know for a fact didn't have a living soul left on it the last time I was here." Her voice carried the hard edge of suspicion in it. "This place was filled with mechs and ghosts when my shuttle pulled out."

"I don't know for sure, but I suspect it has something to do with this." Jade reached around her back and the steroidasaurus lunged forward a step, bringing his weapon to bear on Jade's nose in a flash. The other, the one Jade had mentally named Mr. Impossible, had taken up a post by the door to keep watch for more trouble but he also twitched his long rifle back in her direction.

"Relax McLargeHuge," she said slowly pulling a datapad out of her waistband and handing it to the other woman. "I'm pretty sure these things are non lethal."

"That's the only thing I've been able to find so far in a language I can read. It's addressed to someone named Lawson and it details advances made in prototype technology for something they called 'Project Lazarus'." Something flickered across the redhead's face too fast for Jade to identify. "Looks like they were testing the early stuff on various subjects before passing them on to this Lawson. Apparently I was one of the subjects."

Jade sighed again. "I've been in cryo for over 150 years so I guess that meant I was the perfect candidate for this."

"I don't buy it," Steroidasaurus growled. "She's a plant commander. You're on a Cerberus base with no visible means of arrival and even wearing a Cerberus uniform, no way this is legit."

"I'm sorry man, my fucking Dress Blues are still at the cleaner so it was either this or wander around baretit," Jade ground out, her patience with this bullshit finally reaching its end. She took a calculated risk and breasted up to the jerk, belligerence written in every line of her face. "I dunno about you but I sort of think it's a _bit_ chilly to be wandering around this tomb in the altogether. Maybe humanity has evolved a lower temperature tolerance, but I didn't survive the fucking cryogenic freezing and thawing process just to die of exposure six weeks after waking up on a goddamn ghost ship just to please your fucking sensibilities."

He looked like he was about to lay her out right then and there when the commander's voice cut through the hostility.

"Stand down Mr. Vega," She called, laying a hand on one beefy shoulder. "Ms. Harmon, I believe you, but the LT has a point. The Illusive Man has a tendency to set up traps for us to fall into."

"Fine," Jade turned to look the other woman straight in the eyes. "Put me in irons, throw me in the brig, interrogate me. I don't give a fuck how you deal with your suspicions, just get me the fuck out of here and I'll cooperate with whatever you ask."

She heard a sort of growling chirp and watched as the commander tilted her head as though listening. It took Jade a moment to realize that Mr. Impossible was _speaking_. The commander nodded as though it meant something to her.

"Garrus is right, I don't think it'll be necessary to restrain you, but this is not the place to be having this discussion." The commander looked at Jade. "Let's get you to the Normandy."


	4. Chapter 4

"Take Sergeant Harmon back to the Normandy and have Chakwas take a look at her," The Commander said as she replaced her helmet and turned toward the door. "I'll take Garrus to look around a bit, see if we can't find anything to substantiate her claim."

"Shep-" Vega began, mutiny in his voice.

"Vega, I need Garrus' tech expertise if we've got to get into their mainframe." The commander's voice was even. "I don't think your particular … style of hacking will be particularly helpful in this instance."

"But -"

"Vega …"

"Fine, but you owe me for this, Lola."

"I knew I could count on you, James." The commander headed out the door with a nod in their general direction. "We'll talk more when I get back," she threw over her shoulder at Jade.

The big man turned to the smaller woman and gave her a glare that might have turned her blood to ice, if she hadn't gotten similar looks from, well not bigger, but much more intimidating people than Lieutenant Vega.

"If it makes you feel any better, you can have this," Jade held out the pistol that had also been in her waistband. "As much as I hate having my integrity questioned by some muscle-bound moron, I'd really rather not get shot because you sighted this on me and decided to interpret it as a threat."

He grunted and took the proffered weapon.

"This way." He gestured with his weapon for Jade to walk ahead of him. She took it in stride. She honestly hadn't given him much reason to trust her. If someone on one of her ops had dropped out of the ceiling wearing an enemy uniform and babbling about having been frozen for over a hundred years she'd have been pretty skeptical as well.

He showed her aboard the ship and wound his way through what looked like some sort of command center a huge holographic projection of the ship dominating the center of the room. Several of the people in the room stopped what they were doing and stared at the pair as they wound through. Jade shrugged internally. _Eh, a ship's a ship's a ship I suppose. Can't stop scuttlebutt no matter how hard you try. God knows I've tried._

"I have informed Dr. Chakwas that you are on the way, Lieutenant." A disembodied female voice floated down from the intercom.

_Security and communications gotta be interlinked for whoever that is to already know we're aboard and what we need,_ Jade thought as she walked behind the big man. At this point Jade was pretty firmly outnumbered if she tried anything and, since she had no idea where she was going, it was more practical for him to lead.

"I have told her to meet you in Life Support as Mordin and Eve are currently involved in a delicate experiment and cannot be disturbed."

"That's as good a place as any," Vega replied to the voice. "Let her know we'll be there momentarily."

An interminable elevator ride later Jade found herself standing very still as a grey-haired doctor waved some sort of holographic scanner over her body. _At least I don't have to wear one of those damn paper gowns. I suppose there are some good things about this future shit. And, if I'm understanding the techno speak, the good doctor just performed the most invasive exam I've ever had, including the ones with Doc Forsythe did before he accepted me into Operation Birdseye, and all without having to even remove my socks. I could get used to this!_

The doctor straightened up and examined the display on her arm.

"Well Sergeant Harmon," Dr. Chakwas began. "It looks like you've got a few nutritional issues, which are, honestly, not nearly as bad as I expected considering you've been surviving on what you could scavenge from that station's rations. You're also quite dehydrated. I'd like to hook you up to a saline drip until we can get that under control."

Jade nodded, and itched absently at a scab on her elbow then looked at her fingernails, they were caked with blood and grease and whatever made up that paste she'd been "liberating" from the dispensers on the station. _Probably the rest of me doesn't look much prettier than these do._

"Any chance I can get my hands on a change of clothes and a few personal hygiene items?" Jade asked. "I'd really rather be clean before I get tethered to one of those damn IV racks."

"Of course, I wasn't going to bring it up but I imagine it's been rather a long time since your last proper clean up." Chakwas chuckled then spoke to the air. "EDI?"

"Yes, Doctor?" That same female voice answered.

"Can you ask one of the women on board for a couple of changes of clothes for Sergeant Harmon?"

"Certainly Doctor, I believe Private Westmorland has the closest dimensions, though they are not an exact match."

"That will be fine EDI, Thank you."

"You're welcome, Doctor."

"Excellent, Lieutenant, would you be so good as to ask Mordin for the IV rig? Then I'd like for you to get a tray of whatever is on the menu for lunch and bring it back here. No need to subject the sergeant to the crew just yet."

Vega nodded and turned on his heel, apparently grateful to be anywhere but there.

"Hospitals and their trappings tend to make James nervous," the doctor explained as he stalked out.

"Now," The doctor's intense green eyes bored into Jade's. "Do you want to tell me about what happened to your left arm?"

Jade looked down at the limb in question, flexing her hand experimentally. "Not right now Doc, I still haven't quite figured it out myself. But tell you what, you give me twenty-four hours to rest, get cleaned up and begin to assimilate everything I've learned in the last hour and I promise I'll tell you anything about my history you want to know."

For a moment, it looked as though the doctor was going to press the issue, but Jade's look of utter exhaustion seemed to sway the doctor.

"Fine, but you can expect I'll hold you to that promise."

"Never doubted it Doc."

Hours later, clean and dressed in a borrowed t-shirt and a pair of soft drawstring pants, Jade was hungry again. Dr. Chakwas had been in and out several times since that first exam, checking on her patient, arranging a cot for Jade to sleep on, removing the empty IV, badgering Vega into leaving Jade in peace, and, finally, declaring that all the other woman needed now was rest.

The lights outside her little room had dimmed so Jade suspected the ship was on its night cycle. She softly padded to the mess on the other side of the elevator. _Thank whatever god there is that refrigerators haven't changed too much in the past 150 years._ She thought as she rummaged through the container, looking for something to eat. Finally settling on what appeared to be a granola mix and some kind of fruit she suspected might be an apple hybrid, Jade pulled her head out of the cabinet and turned to go back to her room.

A sudden growling and clicking came from behind her. Jade immediately dropped her food and whirled, reaching for the sink and the knife she'd seen there. She reared back and screamed in sheer terror at the sight of huge sharp teeth and spikes. The thing had a mouth that it opened impossibly wide and began growling and snarling. Thinking only of escape, Jade slashed at the thing's face and backpedaled until she was free of the confines of the kitchenette.

"shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." Her voice had taken on a breathy monotone as she searched for a way either back to a room with a door she could close or to kill the damn thing.

Her stocking feet scrabbled for purchase on the metal floors and she went down on one knee as the monster advanced, still snarling, the _things_ on the sides of its face flaring and fluttering as it came on, impossibly long arms spread wide to keep Jade from going around.

More growling came from her right, and she turned to see another of the things, this one with white markings, round the corner.

"Double fuck," She breathed as she moved to put a wall at her back, brandishing her knife at both of her attackers.

"Fine, you want a piece of me assholes!" She shouted, hoping beyond hope to summon help before the things could manage to corner her and tear her apart. "Bring it on! I'll kill you both!" She slashed at the first monster, aiming for its eyes.

Suddenly the wall behind her moved.

_Door!_ She thought and _Rescue!_ came hard on its heels as she turned.

Except what she saw as she turned was not person, instead it was a new and more terrifying monster, hissing like a teakettle. It darted at her with a sinuous grace and seemed to flow around her wild slashes as she tried to adjust to this new threat.

Jade felt a prick in her neck as the damn thing closed with her. When it drew back she saw the hypodermic in its hand – _paw?_ – just before she faded into the black.


	5. Chapter 5

She was cold.

Again.

_What _is _it with these people? Are they all from the arctic or something?_

Jade moved to sit up but the motion was arrested suddenly.

_What the fuck?_

She opened her eyes and looked down at the sturdy, wide, band stretched across her chest. Her wrists and ankles were similarly restrained. She tested the bonds, setting them to creaking with the strain but stopped after only a moment.

_Okay, time for a recap._ Jade quickly reviewed what memories she had leading up to the current moment. _Went for a snack and I was attacked by some kind of Alien/Predator hybrid beasts and now I'm strapped to a gurney like some kind of psycho. What the _fuck _is going on here? Least I'm still in one piece though. Thought I was a goner for sure._

She began to cautiously try to get a better idea of her surroundings. None of the medical equipment was familiar to her in anything but the vaguest way. She heard a gentle susurration from the other end of the room but there was a piece of equipment blocking her view of its source. The doors on that end of the room swished open.

"Is she awake?" Shepard's voice was the most welcome thing Jade had heard in a very long time. The only response the commander received was more of that gentle hissing. Jade heard footsteps approaching her bed and watched as the commander rounded the corner and gestured someone out of sight to stay where they were.

"Hey there soldier, how are you doing?" Shepard began. "Heard you had kind of a rough night. Want to tell me about it?"

"That depends on whether or not you managed to catch and kill those monsters that got on your ship," Jade replied. "They looked like they could do some serious damage."

"We'll get to that in a moment," the commander said. "For now, just rest assured that you, me, and the rest of the crew are perfectly safe from those 'monsters'. I want to know what happened."

"Well," Jade started, trying to think of where to start the story. "It was a couple of hours after the Doc finally ran Vega off. I'd taken a nap but I woke up hungry as a bear in springtime. I'd gotten a quick and dirty tour earlier so I figured I'd sneak into the mess and grab a snack without bothering anybody. All of a sudden, this … I dunno even how to describe it … this _thing_ was on the other side of the counter growling and snarling at me. So I reacted. Grabbed the knife, started slashing and making my way to the crew quarters, yelling at the top of my lungs just hoping they all weren't dead already.

"Then this other one rounds the corner from Starboard Observation and I figure I'm sunk. They're both snarling and growling and clicking like there's no tomorrow and I'm up against a wall of teeth and claws. The first one's even got his arms spread out wide to keep me from running past him. Anyway I figured if I was going to go down, I was going to go down fighting and take one of 'em with me. So I back up against the Med Bay doors so at least the fuckers can't flank me.

"'Bout that time the doors slide open and the next thing I know I'm strapped to a table like a felon gypped out of his last meal."

Shepard maintained her silence throughout the whole of Jade's story, a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"So you never heard any of these creatures speak?" She asked slowly, as though trying to make pieces from different puzzles fit together to make a single image.

"Speak?" Jade asked, incredulous. "No ma'am, though I was a little busy running and fighting for my life to ask them what their preferred spices for Jade Tartare were."

"This is important Harmon," the commander snapped. "Did. You. Hear. Them. Speak."

Jade was chastised by the other woman's tone.

"No ma'am," she said again. "All I heard was growling and snarling and clicking. Except for the last one, the one who came out of the Med Bay he hissed like a pissed off rattler."

"Well Mordin," The commander turned to the other person who was still out of sight. "What do you think?"

Jade heard more of that hissing from before and craned her neck to try to see around the corner just as the source of the sound came into view.

Jade's response was immediate and dramatic. She pulled as far away from the creature as the restraints allowed as it stretched out an orange wreathed hand toward her head and opened her mouth to shout a warning when her thought process was interrupted by a burst of static that seemed to come from _inside_ her head.

"… anslator installed but never calibrated." A high pitched, rapid fire stream of English replaced both the hissing and the static. "Likely never thought she'd wake up. Same model as yours Shepard. Also, took the liberty of activating accelerometers in hands. Should make interfacing with tech more efficient."

The creature looked directly at Jade and blinked ridiculously large eyes. "Can understand me now, yes? Good, maybe now will refrain from attempting surgery with a butcher knife."

At Jade's small nod it turned back to Shepard. "Should be safe to release Ms. Harmon now. Must return to work on genophage. Just about to begin critical test. Will be here if you need me."

The strange being turned and made its way to the other end of the Medical Bay and Shepard looked at Jade.

The wheels in Jade's head may turn slowly at times but they do turn and she'd been thinking since the creature – _Mordin_, she reminded herself – had begun speaking in a language she could understand.

"That was the Dr. Solus Doctor Chakwas was talking about yesterday, wasn't it?" She asked the commander. "And last night, those weren't monsters who had invaded the ship were they? Fuck, less than one day aboard and I managed to piss off one of your lieutenants, confuse your doctor and attempt to kill two other crewmembers."

"Actually," Shepard replied as she evaluated Jade's new attitude. "Only one of them is a member of my crew, the other was the leader of his race. I only _just_ managed to convince him that you'd undergone some severely traumatic experiences and weren't in your right mind when you threatened to carve him into tiny turian chunks."

Jade went quite pale at this revelation.

_Fuck, you've really stepped in it this time Harmon. Now what are you going to do with yourself? You can't even figure out how to work the elevator in this one ship, how do you expect to be able to survive on your own?_

"I imagine you're planning on setting me down on the nearest habitable planet after that stunt," Jade said trying to suss out the commander's intentions. "I wouldn't blame you if you did."

"Not necessarily," the redhead replied. "Garrus said you were pretty talented with that knife, could have taken his eye if you'd been more focused on killing him than running away and Victus said your tactical thinking was sound even though you were clearly panicked. That kind of compliment from a Turian isn't something to be taken lightly.

"You planning on attacking any more of my crew if I let you out?" As Jade's shook her head, Shepard removed the restraints. "I could use someone with that kind of fire and fast thinking on my team. We've got a critical mission and I can use every talent I can get my hands on to defeat the Reapers."

Jade sat up and regarded the other woman steadily, rubbing her wrists reflexively.

"I don't know what these 'Reapers' are, but it's not like I've got anything better to do." She rose and stood at attention. "If you think I might be an asset I'll gladly help you in any way I can."

"Welcome aboard Sergeant Harmon," Shepard returned the salute Jade reflexively rendered and then relaxed her posture. "Now let's see about getting you some clothes that actually fit."


	6. Chapter 6

Jade pressed her back against the door frame and listened for the break in fire that indicated her opponent was changing thermal clips. When it came, she lunged around the corner and caught him with a three-round burst to the chest that knocked him back long enough for Garrus to put a round through his head.

She'd gone in person as soon as she was able to apologize to both the turians she'd attacked. The Primarch had been the easy one. Jade had been called on the carpet more than once in her military career and knew how to handle a superior officer dressing her down. Garrus, on the other hand, had been more difficult. He'd been impressed by her skills as a soldier and a survivor, but was still wary of her as a human. Apparently, even Shepard's influence only went so far when there were so many who still harbored animosity after the First Contact War.

Jade grunted her thanks and followed Shepard through the laboratory, looking for more Reaper tech. _Well, _she's _looking for Reaper tech._ Jade thought as she helped clear the next room._ I wouldn't know Reaper tech if it walked up and punched me in the face._

"Clear!" she called as she finished sweeping the room for any additional enemies. There was a console in a corner of her section and she drew the others' attention to its contents. "I don't know what this is but it looks important."

"Good work." Shepard said as she moved to deactivate the containment field.

"What is this shit anyway," Jade asked eying the artifact as Shepard fiddled with the controls.

"Damifino," the other woman grunted. "Other than Reaper tech and therefore extremely dangerous. You read those journals. Whatever this 'integration' involves it's clearly no good for the people who sign on to Cerberus."

"First level indoctrination or higher I'd bet," Garrus rumbled from the door. "That kind of personality change is too advanced to be low level exposure."

Shepard merely grunted in reply.

"Aaand, got it!" She said as the field fell. "Let's get this back to Cortez."

"Roger that." Jade replied. "Moving out."

It wasn't until they returned to the interior of the base that they realized the areas they had previously cleared had been restocked with new goons. Jade dove for cover as her shields absorbed small arms fire.

"Goddamn, motherfucking, sons of bitches don't know when to fucking give up do they?" She swore as her borrowed armor pinched uncomfortably. She couldn't move from her crouch behind a console without exposing her shields to more fire. "You'd have thought they'd have figured out they are badly outclassed by now."

Shepard stood and began returning fire; her shields absorbing the withering fire directed her way and drawing the attention of their enemies, not incidentally allowing her teammates to return fire.

"Sure they're outclassed," Shepard growled between shots. "C'mere you bastard, show me your head. But Cerberus has altered them so much they're probably incapable of even questioning their orders at this point."

She ducked back down to change her clip. "And if they're indoctrinating techs and scientists to keep them complacent, you can damn well be sure they've altered their grunts even more heavily."

Shepard leaned up to eyeball their opponents over the top of the counter she and Jade crouched behind.

"Guardians inbound," She said. "Garrus, you wanna send 'em a special delivery through those mail slots?"

"I'm on it." The big turian stood and the roar of his Widow filled the air. "Scoped and dropped. I think that's the last of this batch. We should move if we want to get the rest of that tech."

_He's still not happy that Shepard pulled me for this op._ Jade thought as she checked the fallen for spare thermal clips. _I don't blame him. An apology does not erase what I did and, like Vega said, there's no evidence that I'm not an enemy plant. Figure that's why Shepard wanted me on this op. Chance to show I don't mind killing Cerberus. Christ, thinking about this is making my head hurt. There's a reason I specialized in raw intel and blunt force tactics. I'm _shit_ at trying to figure this stuff out._

"Right. Jade, you take point," Shepard nodded the other woman forward then gave her a broad grin. "Having fun yet?"

"Oh sure, I'm hot, thirsty, wearing ill-fitting armor and killing enemies on their own turf, who have me sorely outnumbered," Jade replied in a playfully sarcastic tone as she took up her position. "What's not to love? It's just like being back in Baghdad!"

She cautiously peeked around the corner and motioned the team forward. It seemed no matter how clear she thought the facility was, Cerberus always had more troops to drop in behind them. Finally, after several more small scuffles, they appeared to have reached the end of the cannon fodder.

"I think we're clear for the nonce," Jade reported, lowering her guard fractionally. "Also I think that other bit of Reaper tech is just there if you wanna grab it."

As Shepard and Garrus moved to the console to work to bring down the containment field, Jade prowled the perimeter of the room, poking into bins and opening lockers, looking for any hidden enemies or goodies. She opened the door to an adjacent storage room and froze in her tracks, She'd missed it the first time they'd cleared the room, more worried about checking for hidden enemies than looking at what was written on the stacks of footlockers, otherwise she'd have noticed her own name in big, block letters on the side of one of the crates.

She stood for a moment, just staring at the black letters, mind completely blank, then the oddity of it struck her. _Why would these people have a locker of my things? I left those for Ana. What's … what's …_ She reached out to flip open the latches.

"Harmon!" Shepard's voice cut through the fog in Jade's mind. "We're nearly done with this field and then we're outta here. What did you find?"

"I … I think it's mine." Jade admitted, gesturing to the footlocker.

"What?" Shepard stooped to look. "Why would they … you know what? It doesn't matter. Grab it; we'll deal with whatever's inside when we get back to the Normandy."

"Right," Jade shook herself. "You're right. Let's go."

She grabbed the box's handle and hoisted it up, it was surprisingly light.

Garrus had the Reaper artifact now and all three of them moved, hell bent for leather, for the landing pad.


	7. Chapter 7

A trip to the Citadel with Commander Shepard was … an adventure.

"Are you sure I'm going to need all of … this?" Jade spread her arms and gestured to the growing pile of armor, armaments, and personal items before her. "I mean I figured I'd, I dunno, be helping out with the unskilled labor or something after freezing up like that on the last mission."

"I can hardly keep loaning you my old armor and making you use a loaner weapon. There's a reason most of the team has custom equipment." Shepard snorted. "Besides, I saw how easily you took to the Mattock when I snuck you into the Spectre firing range. You're a natural, well, not really, you've got a lot of training and it's translating well to 22nd century weapons. I'd hate to waste that by making you peel potatoes on the Normandy the entire war."

"Well, a rifle's a rifle's a rifle isn't it?" Jade struggled to close the top on an armor crate. "Essentially a 'point and shoot' weapon of destruction. 'Sides I liked how it was less 'spray and pray' than some of those others you let me try. I'd also like to get my hands on one of those sniper rifles. That Viper was possibly the sweetest weapon I've had my hands on in ages."

"I thought a rifle was a rifle was a rifle?" Shepard arched a brow at the other woman.

"Sure, if you're talking about assault rifles," Jade opened her hands wide in a pose classic of a professional speaking about their area of expertise. "But long-range, highly accurate weapons, those can vary widely between individual rifles, let alone manufactures."

Shepard chuckled a little at Jade's enthusiasm and made a gesture of surrender.

"You and Garrus should get together and talk about that then." She said. "I'm utterly hopeless when it comes to delivering death from a distance. I'm more of an up-close and personal kind of gal."

"That's probably a conversation better left for when he doesn't think I'm out to put a bullet in his head any time he turns his back on me," Jade said with a rueful smile. "Trying to kill someone the first time you meet them isn't a very stable foundation to build any kind of relationship on. And locking up on a mission, even when there aren't any enemies nearby is just bad business all around"

"He'll come around after a few ground missions," Shepard said motioning for a clerk to take the crates away and have them delivered to the Normandy. "After all, he did eventually develop, if not a friendship, then a tolerance for Jacob and Miranda and they were both members of a human superiority paramilitary group. Besides, we've all frozen at one point or another. The key is that you got your head back in the game quickly and kicked ass the rest of that mission."

The two women left the shop and began making their way back to the Normandy chatting amicably as Jade tried hard not to stare at the aliens around her. It had been jarring at first, seeing all the different forms sentient life took. But as her translator caught and transformed the alien sounds into understandable words she soon adjusted to their presence.

_It's no different from any other big city, I guess, _she thought as Shepard stopped to talk to some person or the other. _Same people, same rush, same scurry, same lights, same beauty_, Jade caught sight of some sort of furtive transaction going on in an alley. _Same dark underbelly, same crimes. _

A flash of a dirty face behind a vent cover drew her attention before disappearing in an instant. _Same unseen and unlamented non-people._

Jade leaned back against a railing and simply observed the swirl of life around her. _This exact scene could be happening in New York, or Paris, or Bejing. Or Beirut._ She closed her eyes against the memories and balled her left hand into a fist, digging her nails into her palm. _No we're not thinking about that. Not now, not here. That was a long time ago._

She was startled from her train of thought by Shepard's gentle touch on her shoulder.

"You okay?" The other woman asked concern and curiosity on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Jade searched for a change of topic that would distract the commander. "You know I still haven't opened that box we picked up yet?"

"Afraid?" Shepard led the way to the bank of elevators.

"No, it just hasn't seemed like the proper time yet." Jade shrugged. "Probably doesn't help that I'm still kicking myself for my initial reaction when I saw it. That was a rookie mistake."

"If you'd stop beating yourself up about the damn thing I might give you the opportunity to make up for your 'rookie mistake'." Shepard said as they made their way through the throng on the docks. "We're going to Eden Prime next. It's … I've got a lot of my own baggage tied up on that planet. So if you think you're up to another mission, I'd like you to tag along. Besides, I think it'll do you some good to see how far humanity has come since you last knew it."

"You wanna do that boss, you can take me back to Earth and show me the parking lot that used to be my family farm." Jade's chuckle choked off when she saw the stricken look on the commander's face. "What?"

"Nothing, it's nothing, let's get on the ship." Shepard's voice was distant, no hint of the friendly woman left, only the cold, hard commander. "Those colonists aren't going to be able to hold out forever.


	8. Chapter 8

Eden Prime was a hole.

A lovely tropical one to be sure, but a hole nonetheless.

"This is what people live in?" Jade looked at the prefab units stacked haphazardly atop one another and grunted. "Looks like a trailer park after an anal retentive F5 tornado."

She followed Shepard and Liara through the settlement, checking for survivors and looking for whatever it was that would open that box Cerberus had dug up.

"It wasn't always like this," Liara said. "It used to be much better developed. Before Saren."

_Liara's not so bad, _Jade thought as she covered the door while the other two fiddled with the computer. _Sure, she's a little … excitable when it comes certain subjects, but hey, aren't we all?_

In fact, Liara had been the easiest non-human crew member for Jade to adjust to. _I blame it on Dad and all the Star Trek marathons he used to put on when I was a kid. Nothing like watching Captain Kirk make his way through the universe boinking every space babe that crossed his path, to let you accept working with a blue space babe from an entire race of space babes. Dad'd be in heaven._

Apparently, Cerberus had an unlimited supply of mooks they could afford to throw away on one archaeological dig. Jade blew a hole on another one of the bastards trying to set up a turret.

"Oi! You'd think these assholes would have noticed there was a war on and they should be throwing bodies at the Reapers rather than us," Jade slapped a new heat sink into her rifle. "Christ, don't these people _want _to live?"

"It's complicated," Shepard grunted and lobbed a grenade into a cluster of enemies. "The short version is that their leader wants to control the Reapers, rather than destroy them."

"Wait, these things are bigass fucking machines … right?"

"Right."

"Like the kind that can destroy entire planets?"

"Uh huh."

Jade thought for a moment as she lined up a shot on another of the bigger bastards, then shrugged. "Eh, I guess I can see the logic in it. I mean, from what I gather, these things are more advanced than anything else in the galaxy. That's a lot of power to give up if you can turn it instead."

The centurion went down under a hail of bullets as the three women concentrated fire on the last Cerberus operative on the field.

"Granted," Jade said leaving cover and checking the bodies. "I'm not sure I'd trust anything that fucking smart not to simply _act_ like it was being controlled until it could turn the tables."

"And that's without even touching on indoctrination," Liara said, giving one of the agents a double tap.

"All right, that's the last of them," Shepard moved through the courtyard. "Let's find the rest of this data and get the hell out of here."

Twenty minutes and another couple of waves of dead Cerberus operatives later they had the data and were ready to open the box. Shepard began keying the sequence into the controls.

Jade looked at Liara. "You're sure this is a living prothean?"

"As sure as I can be under the circumstances," doubt flashed through her eyes. "It has been rather a long time."

"Well, I was just thinking of when I came out of cryo."

"Go on."

"Well it was disorienting as all fuck, and that was after only like, what hundred-fifty, hundred-sixty years? How do you think this guy's gonna react after fifty _thousand_? Especially if all these weird lookin' assholes are standing around staring at him with a buncha weapons pointed at his - Oh shit."

While Jade had been talking, Shepard finished the sequence and the coffin-like pod had opened. The being inside had woken surprisingly fast. Before any of the women could react a pressure wave threw all of them to the ground.

"What the fuck," Jade coughed, trying to regain her breath.

The prothean stumbled from the pod and ran s few steps before tripping again. _Guess his recovery isn't going quite as well as mine,_ Jade thought as she wheezed. _Course I had a few minutes in the pod to get my legs under me, bastard's quick though._

"Be careful!" Liara was the first to her feet Shepard only a fraction of a second slower. "He's confused."

"No shit, Inky," Jade said, finally standing as Shepard reached out to touch the alien who seemed transfixed by the site of the ruins in the valley below.

As she made contact, both Shepard and the prothean jerked like they just grabbed a live wire then stood stock still only occasionally twitching.

"Uh … is that … normal?" Jade asked Liara as they both stood and stared at the other two, uncertain how to proceed.

"Not really, but then we really don't actually know that much about the protheans," Liara seemed just as unsure of the situation as Jade.

"You think we should, I dunno, break the contact?"

"No, when Shepard accessed the beacon, three years ago it nearly killed her. I have no idea what would happen if we attempted to separate them at this point."

It was about then the alien fell to his knees and Shepard shook her head. The two conversed in low tones as Jade and Liara made their way over. He turned and addressed them.

"What is this?" His tone was unmistakably dripping with distain. "Asari, humans, have nothing but _primitives_ managed to survive in this cycle?"

_Huh, I think that was _English!_ How the hell'd he pick that up? I'm pretty sure even the best translator wouldn't have a fifty-thousand years dead language in it._

Cortez came over the comms warning them of yet another wave of Cerberus troops headed their way.

Shepard nodded and gestured to the Normandy's inbound shuttle. "Look we can insult each other on the ship. Will you join us?"

"If you fight the Reapers," at Shepard's nod he turned on his heel and stalked away. "Then we will see."

"Well," Jade said stepping alongside Shepard. "He's a charmer."

"He watched his people die before his eyes," Shepard murmured as they followed him to the shuttle. "Try not to judge him too harshly."

"Heh, woke up to everything I know gone and everyone I loved long turned to dust, Commander." Jade replied. "You don't have to worry about me judging him. Believe me, I get it."


	9. Chapter 9

Liara whisked the prothean away, mumbling something about putting him in a cargo bay and adjusting environmental controls.

Jade doffed her armor and set her weapons on the bench.

"Don't clean those Cortez," She threw over her shoulder as she headed to the elevator. "I'm just running to the Crew Deck for a second. I'll be right back to take care of them myself in a minute."

"You know you don't have to do that, right?" Came the reply. "That's part of what Vega and I are here for."

"Sure, for those other folks who have actual duties to get back to," Jade grinned. "It's either clean my own damn weapons in y'all's pleasant company or get back to the overwhelming amount of _nothing_ I've got waiting for me."

Cortez chuckled. "Good point. I'll lay out the kits for you then."

"You're a prince man!" Jade shot him with double finger pistols and laughed as she entered the lift.

When she headed back after a quick rinse down and change of clothes, Jade found herself crammed into the elevator with several other, highly armed crewmembers.

"What's goin' on?" She asked the grim-faced men and women as she wedged herself into the available space. "Did I miss something?"

"No ma'am," one of the men replied. "We were ordered to the port cargo hold, something about First Contact Protocols."

Curious, Jade followed the security team as they exited. Through the open doors she could hear Liara's voice arguing with someone, presumably whoever ordered security. As she stepped through the door, warm, humid air, carrying just a hint of the sea with it pressed down on her from all sides. In front of her a figure was being held at gunpoint, on his knees. Jade was forcibly dragged more than a hundred years into the past. For a moment, it was like her translator had stopped working and all she heard was the lilt of Arabic. In the low, golden light, Jade saw Joe kneeling before his attackers as one of them leveled a rifle at his head, finger slowly tightening on the trigger until …

The impact of another body against hers brought her out of her flashback with a suddenness that was almost physically painful. For a brief, disorienting moment, Jade couldn't recall where she was or how she'd gotten there. Then the reality of the last few hours returned.

"What the _fuck_ do you assholes think you're doing?" She roared in her best imitation of a parade ground drill sergeant, startling herself with just how rough her own voice sounded. "I'm fairly certain the commander wouldn't have brought him aboard if she thought he was a threat to us."

"Sorry, ma'am," the security chief replied. "The protocols are clear on this subject. We're following regulations, regardless of what either you or the Asari say."

"Really, yeah, I bet that's going to go over _real _well when Shepard gets down here." Her voice was still a little strained but she looked at Liara. "You send for the boss?"

The other woman gave her a strange look but held her peace. "Yes, just a moment before you came in. she should be here any-"

"What's going on here?" Shepard's calm voice carried only the faintest hint of irritation at being interrupted.

"Apparently these bozos think your newest crewmember is more of a threat than an asset." Jade said with all the venom she could muster.

"Ma'am, the protocols on first contact are clear," the chief said as he stepped to meet Shepard. "We're to assume hostility until proven otherwise. We had to dust off the regulations."

Jade's harsh laugh echoed through the room.

"Considering how easily this guy knocked us all on our asses the instant he opened his eyes, I'd hazard a guess that the only reason you're holding him at all is because he's allowing you to," Jade said.

_And considering the look ol'boy there just gave all of us I'd say I hit the nail square on the head._ The prothean was glaring at the room like he'd vent them all out the nearest airlock if he didn't think he needed their help. _He is not pleased that he needs our help, that's for damn sure._

Shepard snorted at Jade's statement. "Harmon's right. I've never been knocked down that easily, let alone by someone straight out of stasis. You're all lucky he hasn't decided to be hostile. Stand down."

"I apologize for my crew, they can get a little … enthusiastic sometimes," Shepard approached the prothean. "I hope this isn't going to cause any problems."

"That depends on you," the prothean lunged forward to grasp Shepard's arms.

"Damnit! Hold position," Jade shouted when the security detail moved to take the alien down. "We don't know what will happen if we try to break them up!"

The security chief nodded and gestured for the team to follow Jade's warning but to remain cautious.

The pair broke apart and Shepard again gestured for the security team to lower their weapons.

"I will aid you, human," the prothean said as he stepped back, a modicum of respect in his eyes for Shepard. "I am called Javik."

"I'm glad I can count on you, Javik," Shepard said. "I was hoping you could help us with this war." Though Shepard and Javik were more relaxed than they had been moments ago, tensions were still high as they began talking about the Reapers and the galactic war.

_Apparently this isn't the first time giant machines have waged war on the galaxy,_ Jade thought as she listened to the argument. She recognized the agony in his voice as he spoke of the ashes of trillions. She closed her eyes against the memories.

_"Damnit Pierce! I can't just let it go! Can't you see that?" Jade ran her hands – hand – through her hair in frustration. "They took everything from me!"_

_"I know Harmon, but there's no way we can find out who the mole is at this point, it's been six months." Brian Pierce reached out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. Jade jerked away, her grief still too raw to allow even the smallest touch. "We've got feelers out, but it'll take weeks, if not months for us to unearth them."_

_"You could let me see the communication logs," Jade said eyes bright with a manic energy that belied her physical state. "It's the least you could do." _

_Her voice climbed higher until it reached the breaking point. "Damnit! You_ owe _me Pierce! They stole Joe! They took him away from me!"_

_"Why don't you take some time off," Pierce's voice was soothing. "Spend some time with Ana. You both need to deal with your grief. And you still need physical therapy before we can begin to fit you with prosthesis."_

_Jade gulped and tried to get her reactions back under control. "Fine," she finally ground out. "But tell me you'll send me those logs. You know I won't rest until I put a bullet in their heads, all of them."_

_"I'll see what I can do," Pierce said as he opened his office door for her. "Just promise me you'll get some rest."_

Jade took a ragged breath. Liara was pressing the Prothean for information on his race and he was starting to look annoyed, or what Jade guessed was annoyed. Jade stepped forward and touched her elbow.

"Don't you think it's a little soon to bombard him with all this?" She asked once Liara looked at her. "He's been in stasis for _fifty thousand_ years. Why don't you give him a bit to adjust? I'm sure he'll be more open to sharing information with you once he's had a chance to get his bearings."

She imagined she caught a flicker of what could be called relief and gratitude from the prothean. Liara and Shepard nodded at Jade's suggestion and Jade led Liara out of the room behind the security team, leaving the commander and Javik to talk.

Jade made her way back down to the hangar, cleaning her weapons would help her regain her bearings. Flashbacks were hard enough to deal with when you were in familiar surroundings, no matter how long she'd been on the Normandy, it still wasn't familiar enough.

Sometime later, as she was reassembling the last of her weapons joking and trading barbs with Cortez and Vega, Javik entered the hangar.

"You are not like the others," the prothean said with no preamble, approaching Jade as she sat at the weapons bench.

"I imagine not," she replied, carefully fitting the pieces of her Mattock back together. "Probably come across as even more 'primitive' than anyone else on the ship."

"Yes," Javik replied. "I would know why."

"Thought you weren't interested in getting to know us," Jade grunted, finishing her assembly and clicking through a function check. "Thought the only thing that mattered to you was defeating the Reapers."

The prothean growled in frustration and turned to leave the docking bay.

"Relax," Jade said as she stood and placed her weapon in the locker. "I'm only fuckin' with ya. Reality is, I was born over two hundred years ago and spent a lot of the last hundred and fifty or so in a cryogenic sleep. I know that's nothing on fifty-k in stasis but it's probably why I 'feel' different from the rest of the humans on the crew."

Javik looked back at the woman, assessing whether or not she was lying to him. Jade met his four-eyed stare steadily. She knew he would be able to sense the honesty in her words.

"Look, I may not know what it's like to be the last surviving member of your species but, well, humanity has changed so much in the last two centuries that I may as well be," Jade continued to hold Javik's gaze with her own, hoping that her intent was clear in spite of her clumsy words.

"You know nothing," he replied finally. But there was little of his usual venom in the words. He turned away again, softly repeating himself. "Nothing."


	10. Chapter 10

Over the course of the next few weeks, Jade paid special attention to the ship talk. The consensus, it seemed, was that Javik, while being a marvel as the last surviving prothean, was also an unrepentant asshole. He'd apparently threatened to space half the crew at one point or another. They would sit around in the mess and compare stories over dinner, and they came to the conclusion that the other half of the crew just hadn't had the pleasure of interacting with him yet.

It was during one of these bitch sessions that Jade finally spoke up.

"So I offered to help him replace the panel," one of the crewmen told the assembled group. "And he snarled, literally _snarled _at me that he was perfectly capable of replacing it on his own and told me that I should leave unless I … How did he put it? Ah! Unless I 'had a burning desire to discover whether my species suffocated or froze to death first when exposed to the hard vacuum of space.' Can you imagine?"

"What were you doing in his living quarters to begin with," Jade asked quietly, taking a bite of her meal.

"What?" The crewman looked indignant. "I was doing a systems check when I noticed a fault indicating that one of the access panels in the port cargo area was loose. I went in to check it and secure it if necessary."

"EDI told you about this?" Jade looked up from her meal and fixed the young man with a hard look.

"No, it came up during a routine check." He was fidgeting a bit now. "I wanted to make sure it wasn't a sensor malfunction."

"But EDI, the unshackled AI who literally _is_ the ship, didn't send you a notification that this 'loose panel' was affecting the ship's operation?"

The crewman sputtered something about Alliance regulations and the danger loose panels could cause in battle that Jade couldn't be arsed to pay attention to, so she cut him off mid explanation.

"That's fascinating, really. But what's even more interesting is the fact that there are no fewer than three loose panels in this room alone that, oddly enough considering the danger you were just outlining, have been loose since, at least, the day I first came onto this ship." Her eyes took on an even frostier gleam as she fixed the hapless boy with a glare that had, in the past, given even the most hard bitten militants pause. "It sounds to me like you, and all your friends here, have taken any and every opportunity you can find to invade the man's privacy and gawk at him like some wet-behind-the-ears farm boy on his first trip to the city. It's no wonder he's threatening to throw the lot of you out of the airlock. I'd have already knocked at least one of you out cold if you'd tried pulling any of that shit with me."

The entire group got very quiet as Jade spoke. Though her tone was light and conversational, not a single one of them missed the venom in her words.

"Now I wasn't raised on a ship, or a space station, or even in this century where it seems that personal space means fuckall, but I imagine privacy is still a concept that has some sort of meaning to you all. Am I wrong?"

She stared at them until they seemed to realize she was expecting an answer from them. As she received a belated chorus of "no's" and "no, ma'am's" from her cowed and guilty audience, Jade continued.

"Then maybe the lot of you slack-jawed idiots will remember that and take a moment before the next time you choose to barge into that man's private quarters to consider something. He has already seen how this war you're fighting so hard to win could end," Jade forced each one of her audience to meet her hard, grey, eyes. "He watched as his people fell to the Reapers, one by one, planet, by planet. And now, even though he doesn't know a single one of you from Adam, he's being forced to watch it all over again. Everything he did, everything he fought for was for nothing and each one of you is a reminder of that failure.

"So you think about what that would be like. And the next time you or one of your boneheaded friends decides they want to go 'check up on something' in the port cargo hold, you remember what I've said. Or, so help me, you won't have to worry about what he might do to you because I'm not going to leave enough of you to justify throwing it out the airlock. Are we clear?"

And as a body, Jade's little audience snapped to and gave her one of the sharpest salutes this side of basic training and a chorus of "yes, ma'am's" to go with it.

"Good, now git." She waved a dismissive hand at the lot of them. "You're spoiling my dinner."

"That was … impressive," said Liara as she took a seat across the table from Jade.

"Just figured Shepard didn't need one more thing to worry about when she's dealing with all the shit she's already got on her plate," Jade leaned back in her chair. "I'll probably have to take up prowling the engineering deck with my favorite scowl for a while to make it stick. But that poor bastard doesn't deserve to be gawked at by the entire crew."

Liara gave Jade a small smile at the image that conjured, then her face grew serious.

"How are you holding up," she asked.

Jade leaned her chair back as far as it would go and laced her fingers behind her head.

"Me?" she snorted. "Right as rain in April. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I saw how you reacted in Javik's cabin," Liara's tone was heavy, lending a weight and reality to the incident that made Jade's stomach squirm uncomfortably.

"Ah, it's nothing," Jade dismissed the statement with a wave. "Just took me back for a minute. Didn't expect it, that's all."

"To Beirut?"

The casual façade Jade had been trying so hard to maintain dropped abruptly at those two words.

"Where," she asked in a voice gone completely devoid of emotion. "Did you hear about that?"

"I'm the Shadow Broker," Liara seeped unphased by Jade's reaction to her little bombshell. "There's very little I don't have access to, and finding out about the operations of a human covert organization that existed over a century ago is comparatively quite simple."

"Fine," Jade's nod was curt. "You wanna talk about this, we'll talk. But not here."


	11. Chapter 11

Liara led the way to her cabin. Jade kept her peace until the door was closed and locked.

"What do you know?" She demanded once Liara was seated.

"Only what was in the reports," Liara began. "It seems that there was a huge section, mostly surrounding your involvement, that was purged from official records and, since the invasion has cut off all access to the original files, I was hoping you could fill in a few holes. Like what exactly 'Typhon' was. All I could dig up are a few declassified operations reports from nearly two centuries ago and some references to it when I was digging into Cerberus, but it seems to predate that organization, significantly. "

Jade loosed a bark of bitter laughter.

"Typhon Command, I should have known that particular ghost would come back to haunt me," she shook her head. "Christ, it's like a bad penny that keeps turning up. You wanna know about Typhon and Beirut? Then settle in sweetheart, this is going to be a long story.

"I have to start at the beginning. I was never a part of the 24th STS they were just a convenient cover. I was in the Air Force for a while though, just your average cop until I stumbled across the wrong people doing the wrong things and got drummed out when I tried to blow the whistle.

"I'd been out three weeks and was blind drunk when a guy in a suit showed up at my door and offered me a position with Typhon Command. I damn near told him to go fuck himself before my good sense kicked in. I was 22, dishonorably discharged, unemployed, drunk and living in a pay-by-the-hour fleabag motel so, as you can imagine, I jumped at the opportunity. Turns out they were a deep-black organization dedicated to maintaining American superiority. They'd been following the same rabbit trail I had; only it went a lot deeper than I'd ever imagined.

"I took to the work like a fish to water and, let me tell you, it felt _good_ to see the look on that traitorous son of a bitch's face when he recognized me," Jade chuckled darkly at the memory. "Just before I planted a bullet between his eyes. For a few years, things were good. I was part of a solid team and we did good work, important work."

"What kind of work?" Liara asked.

"Assassinations, espionage, a couple of smash-and-grab ops, anything that would help advance American interests." Jade shrugged. "Then Beirut happened. It was supposed to be a simple in and out mission. We were extracting a scientist and some tech from Syria. The guy wanted to defect with his research but couldn't get out on his own. This was my team's specialty and the first bit went smooth as silk."

She chuckled bitterly at that. "I guess that should have tipped me off. Nothing goes as planned. But things didn't go to shit until we were at the safe house in Lebanon, waiting for extraction.

Liara fixed Jade with her unwavering blue gaze. "That's where your team died, isn't it?"

"Not all of them," Jade's voice was low and rough with memory. "Some of them died in Israel, some of them in Turkey. We split up. Tracking eight people with changing identities and itineraries is harder to do than just looking for an eight person team."

_The late afternoon sun poured cheerily through the streets giving everything a golden glow, the kind only seen in romance movies and Thomas Kincade paintings. Jade had been out at the market, simultaneously reinforcing their cover as a pair of German honeymooners and checking for any enemies who may have followed them from Syria. _

_Satisfied they were in the clear, Jade mounted the steps, whistling their signal and wondering if she could convince Joe to skip straight to the dessert tonight. Tomorrow there would be debriefings and they'd have to pick Ana up from his sister's. This would likely be the only time they'd have to themselves for a while. She smiled and stopped for a moment in the kitchen to slip her underwear off. Joe could never resist her when he knew she was "going commando."_

_She padded to the living room calling his name and stopped dead in her tracks. Joe was on his knees and five men were standing in the room, armed to the teeth._

Jade forced herself back to the present, and met Liara's eyes.

"I can't honestly remember how I escaped the ambush on our safe house, all I know is when my memories finally pick up it's five days later and my left arm is so mangled they had to amputate it below the elbow."

Jade squeezed the hand in question into a fist and held it up for Liara to see.

"It seems Cerberus did a bit more than just revive you and fit you with a translator, doesn't it?" Liara asked, looking at the limb.

"Oh honey, that's not the half of it," Jade chuckled darkly. "I used to be six-inches shorter. And, apparently there's a massive _something_ fused to my spine that the Doc can't figure out what it's supposed to do."

"Goddess."

"I know, right?"


	12. Chapter 12

Animalistic grunts and the sound of flesh on canvas echoed through the hangar bay.

Shepard had taken Vega and Vakarian planet side on a mission to rescue a crashed turian crew that apparently included the primarch's son. Jade was fuzzy on the details, but it left her with free reign of the bay, and Vega's workout equipment.

She needed it after her conversation with Liara.

Jade had assured the asari that she had been hyperbolizing her height difference, then showed her Chakwas' report from her initial check-up. Liara had said she would try to look into the Lazarus Project's records, but couldn't promise anything. Her sources inside Cerberus had dried up since the war began.

_'S fine by me,_ Jade loosed a vicious flurry of blows at the bag. _The less time the "Shadow Broker" spends looking into my past, the happier I'll be._

She'd told Liara about the Beirut op. That was in Typhon reports, but not what came after. Jade had made damn sure none of that made it into any reports. Especially any that could be tied to her. It had hurt, remembering Beirut. Hell, it hurt remembering anything from that period of her life. Stirring up memories long dead was exhausting, but Jade knew that if she tried to sleep now, all she'd get for her efforts was nightmares. The only way she knew to head that off was to go for total physical exhaustion. She'd been working toward that end for over an hour now.

With a final combination of kicks and punches Jade finished with the heavy bag and moved to the weight bench. She'd quickly discovered her augmentations both allowed her to do more than she ever had before with very little effort and shortened her recovery period so much that it required concentrated effort to actually wear her out.

_Harder, better, faster, stronger. _She thought wryly as she continued her set. _Great, now I miss my iPod, workouts aren't the same without music._

She was so focused on completing her exercises smoothly, quickly and at the heaviest setting her augmented muscles could handle that she didn't hear the elevator doors open. She didn't even realize anyone else had entered the hangar until the weights she was working with were forcibly lifted out of her hands.

"What the fuck?" She swore as she sat up.

"I will repeat myself once only human."Javik's amber eyes were hard with anger. "Immediately cease polluting the ship with the scent of your pain and aggression. Your pheromones are so strong I can sense them even through a sealed door."

"Sounds like a personal problem," Jade grunted as she picked up a set of weights and began lifting them again.

"Hey!" The weights flew out of her hands, wreathed in an eerie green glow, and crashed into the opposite wall of the bay.

"It _is_ a personal problem," Javik spat, his hands lit with the same light. "But it is not _my_ problem."

"Then fucking leave me to deal with it asshole!" Jade shot back, clenching her fists. _You're losing control Harmon, get your shit together. 'Cmon, not his fault you can't deal with your goddamn past. Put a lid on it soldier!_ She took a couple of deep breaths, struggling to get her runaway emotions under control. "I'm taking care of myself." She hissed through clenched teeth. "I don't see how that could possibly involve you."

"I have already informed you of how I am affected," he was giving back just as good as he got. "The reek of your emotions has invaded my quarters. I cannot concentrate when you contaminate everything I touch."

"So get a goddamn air freshener and get off my fucking back. It's not like I can control that sort of thing." Jade turned her back on the prothean.

Her turn was checked by a three-fingered hand as Javik spun her back around.

"Clearly a species as primitive as yours cannot be expected to control its emotions, but you mistake my meaning," he used his biotics to propel Jade into the center of the hangar. "Since you lack the discipline required to maintain your own balance, you force me to remove the source of the irritation myself."

"You think you're good enough to take me?" His insults had finally pushed Jade's temper past the fraying point.

"Fine," She stripped out of the oversized workout gear she'd been wearing and took up a stance in her sports bra and shorts, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. "Let's see if you've got what it takes to beat one of America's best. Bring it, Kermit!"

Their fight ranged through the shuttle bay moving rapidly from one end to the other as the combatants would retreat or press the advantage. They seemed evenly matched, Jade's flexibility and speed allowing her to dodge Javik's biotics, and a literal lifetime of battle experience allowing him to control the field in spite of Jade's more upfront, physical approach interfering with his biotic abilities. Some forty-five minutes later, both of them were soaked in sweat, bruised and exhausted.

"Alright, you're pretty good," Jade panted as she took cover behind an equipment crate. They'd managed to keep most of the really heavy equipment out of the fray, but small tools and parts were scattered about the floor from overturned tool boxes and crates. "But Shepard's due back any minute. What's say we put this on hold until later. I don't relish trying to handle her bitch-fit when she sees this mess."

"Agreed," came the smooth reply. "But understand that this is not over."

They both left their defensive crouches and began righting the disarray.

"Oh, I understand I'm going to wipe the floor with you," Jade dragged the weights back to Vega's bench as Javik replaced Cortez's tool box manually, biotics long since exhausted. She groaned as a pulled muscle in her back twinged in protest. "Next time."

"We will see," Jade could hear the smirk in his voice, despite the fact his back was to her. "Next time."

She left him on the Engineering Deck, still smirking.

It wasn't until she'd reached her own quarters on the Crew Deck, and she loosed a jaw-cracking yawn, she remembered his ability to read more than just emotions through pheromones, and it occurred to her that maybe, just maybe, he had been doing more than "removing a source of irritation."

_Damn, I got played._ She smiled gently to herself as she fell onto her cot. Her final thought before drifting off to a dreamless sleep was to thank the prickly prothean. _That was _exactly _what I needed._


	13. Chapter 13

The next day, Jade attended the hot wash of yesterday's mission along with the rest of the Normandy's mission specialists.

"Lieutenant Victus told us Cerberus was after a bomb in a ruined city near where his ship went down," Shepard began. "He won't tell me how he knows about this bomb and neither will the primarch. Now, I'm no expert on turian body language –"

Garrus snorted after that statement but refrained from commenting after a frosty glare from the commander.

"But all of this avoidance and 'classified' bullshit smells to high heaven of a cover up. We want this alliance just as much as the turians do, though, so we're going to help pull their bacon out of the fire. Again."

Jade leaned back against the soundproof glass partition that walled off the conference room and continued to listen to the briefing with half an ear as she considered what she knew about the Krogan Rebellions and how this new information fit, silently thanking Specialist Traynor for teaching her how to use the omni-tool Shepard had purchased for her use. She'd been leery at first of the device that seemed to have replaced cell phones, GPS and personal computers with one palm-sized machine.

_Makes sense, given the available information, and it's actually kind of an elegant solution,_ she thought. _Not that much different from our suppression flights over Iraq after Desert Storm. Granted those were meant half as a show of force, wouldn't have been as effective if Saddam hadn't known about them. This though, this is an honest to god contingency plan. I knew the Council was freaked out by the rebellions, but shit … _

Shepard announced the fire team she wanted with her to take the bomb back from Cerberus ending the briefing. Garrus and EDI left with the commander to gear up and the rest of the team began to file out. Jade hung toward the back, waiting for the others to leave first. Ever since waking up in an oversized test tube she'd had little love of enclosed spaces and the security room could get pretty close if there were more than two people waiting to go through.

Javik caught Jade's elbow as they fell in at the end of the line. Their relationship seemed to have warmed somewhat since their sparring match.

"What is the purpose of having a bomb and not using it?" he grumbled as they waited to pass through the checkpoint. "If the krogan are such a threat then it is better to wipe them out and eliminate the threat."

"Not necessarily," Jade replied waiting for the ping to announce she was free of whatever they were scanning for. "The krogan had just bailed the Council out during the Rachni Wars. As a species, they were heroes. If the Council races had wiped the krogan out, it would have caused trouble with other non-council races."

"Bah!" Javik fidgeted impatiently as the scanner's blue light swept over him. "If a show of power is not enough to quell a rebellion in the weaker races, then perhaps you do not deserve to be a leader."

They made their way to the elevator and Jade punched the button for the Shuttle Bay.

"It was an insurance policy, that's all. You're telling me your people never just beat the races they encountered enough to make their point, but no more?" She let out an inelegant snort. "You may have been the most powerful in your cycle, but I find it _very_ hard to believe that they never played this type of game."

The look he gave her was so full of disgust, Jade nearly lost her composure and cracked up right there in the elevator.

"No, we did not." His voice dripped with scorn. "In my time, the scientists believed in what they called 'the cosmic imperative' the law of evolution. The strong flourish and the weak perish; it is the only force in the galaxy that matters. It informed all of our decisions as a government and a race."

"Uh, huh. So you guys really bought into all of that 'nature red in tooth and claw' bullshit. No room at all in your philosophy for altruism?" She shook her head sadly. "Must've made for a very harsh way of life. No wonder you're so prickly."

They arrived just as Shepard's shuttle passed through the containment field and began its descent to Tuchanka. Jade paused a moment to take in the view of the planet below before the doors rolled themselves shut.

"Yes," He mumbled at her side, watching the brown-orange orb rotate beneath them. "But it was even harsher by the time I was born."

"Well, things work differently this cycle," Jade wandered to the weapons rack and pulled her own weapons and Javik followed suit. "The council races don't lead with force, they rely on each other and the other races to shore up weaknesses. We're stronger as a whole unit than any species is on its own. It's also a delicate balance."

They moved to one of the weapons benches and began to work side by side.

"Besides, total annihilation wasn't necessary," she grunted as she muscled a particularly stubborn assembly off her Mattock. "With the genophage in play, the krogan weren't a threat anymore. But they _were_ still useful as heavy infantry. And a living example."

Javik passed Jade a small bottle he pulled from a hidden pocket.

"Use this as a lubricant; it will make the action smoother." Jade snorted as she accepted the bottle. Then waved at Javik to continue when he gave her a curious look, unable to trust her voice.

He shrugged then pressed on. "In my time such insolence would not be tolerated. We would obliterate entire civilizations before we would allow them to become a threat."

"Well," Jade began. "If I'm understanding what Dt. T'Soni has told me about your cycle, that makes sense. By the time you were born the protheans had already been fighting the Reapers for centuries. That was a zero-sum game. Any infighting only opened the way for the Reapers to turn one, or both factions against each other and, ultimately, against the Prothean Empire as a whole. I guess it all boils down to different wars and different times."

Javik grunted and they worked in silence for a long time, other crew members came and went with various projects. The cargo bay was a popular area for mechanics to disassemble and repair pieces small enough to remove but too large or messy to clean on other decks where space was at a premium. The metallic click of pieces and parts as they were stripped, cleaned, lubricated and reassembled filled the silence.

"You seem to be quite knowledgeable of conflicts that had nothing to do with your time or species." Javik finally said.

"Eh," she shrugged. "All of my information and knowledge is over a century and a half old. And, honestly, I'm about as useful as teats on a boar on this ship. Unless Shepard needs me to put bullets down range, there's nothing for me to do. So I research, I read and I observe. Besides I was always a fan of space operas. It's just now, rather than being science fiction, they're science fact."

She snorted. "Besides, I have to keep myself busy, otherwise I get to thinking, and that's never good."

She flexed her left hand.

Javik seemed about to say something when the klaxon began to sound and the outer doors rattled open to admit the shuttle. Rapidly, the pair reassembled and stowed the last of their weapons.

Cortez set the shuttle down on the deck, soft as a lover's kiss and the silence after the engines died was deafening. Jade felt a shiver of foreboding race down her spine in the instant before the door hissed open. She took one look at Shepard's face and knew.

"Oh shit," She breathed, and Javik shot her a sharp look before fixing his steady gaze on the small woman.

"Things did not go the way the commander had hoped," he rumbled after she and the fire team had passed into the elevator.

Jade shook her head. "Not at all."

"I don't _think_ the bomb detonated," said a young crewman who had been performing maintenance in the bay, some esoteric bit of machinery exploded into its component parts all over the available floor space around him. "I mean, we'd know if a planet buster went off, wouldn't we?"

"Yeah, well, we may have won the day," Jade replied, keeping her eyes on the closed elevator doors. "But not without paying a high price. Anyone who has ever accomplished a mission at the expense of a teammate would know that look on Shepard's face."

Javik shot Jade an assessing look out of the corner of his eye.

"Yes," his voice was low. "They would."


	14. Chapter 14

Dust and grit swirled around Jade's knees as she stood outside the tomkah waiting for Shepard and Wrex to finish their business. Sweat trickled down her back and pooled in the valley between her breasts. She pushed a lock of sandy hair behind her ear and felt for the clip it had escaped from. She was glad she'd swapped her helmet out for the cooler visor this mission, but it meant the breeze was constantly teasing tendrils out of the thick braid she'd wound her hair into.

_Christ, I have no idea how Mikki dealt with this shit all the time. _Jade smiled softly to herself as she thought of the half-Hawaiian woman who had served as the team's explosives and demolition expert. _Hell, I still can't figure out how she managed to keep from sitting on all that hair, let alone how she kept it in order during a fire fight._

Jade's hair wasn't nearly long enough to sit on, but apparently, Cerberus had kept her out of cryo long enough for it to grow significantly longer than the collar-length bob she'd kept it in before going under.

"You ready for this?" Garrus asked. The turian had gradually warmed up to Jade since the incident in the mess.

"Sure," she replied, still gazing out over the broken, sere landscape of Tuchanka. "It's not every day I get to help _reverse_ genocide. Usually I'm stuck on the side that's facilitating or ignoring it."

He gave her a skeptical look.

"I was a citizen of the most powerful nation on the planet at the time." Jade shrugged. "We had the biggest military and the most devastating weapons, and we'd had the guts to use them against our enemies in the past, just to expedite the end of a war we _probably_ could have won conventionally but at a slightly higher cost. If what was going on in another part of the world didn't impact us, we ignored it and if it benefited us, we found some way to support it, either directly or indirectly."

Jade chuckled darkly. "We weren't exactly known for our benevolence. You could pretty much count on the USA looking out for its own interests at any cost. This? This is a nice change."

"Sounds like a rough time." He checked the load on his rifle. "And you were in the thick of it?"

"Eh, it was a living," Jade took a sip of water and spat into the dust at her feet. "I joined the military straight out of high school. I didn't know how to do anything else, so when I got discharged, I was sort of directionless. Typhon gave me my direction back, so I didn't ask questions."

Garrus snorted and clapped the smaller woman on the shoulder.

"Well, I'm glad you're on our side then. Cerberus didn't know what they had." He glanced over his shoulder, his more sensitive hearing picking up something Jade couldn't even hope to catch. "Looks like Shepard's wrapping up. You're in the lead truck with Wreav. Shepard is with Mordin, Eve and Wrex. Javik and I will be running with the rearguard. Keep radio contact."

"Will do, Vakarian, sir!" Jade snapped him a jaunty salute and jogged to her designated truck.

Jade leaned to look out the driver's window for what had to be the hundredth time since the convoy got on the move. It bothered her how smoothly this op was going.

_The smoother it goes the worse it is when it all falls to shit._ She thought as the krogan driving elbowed her out of his space with a growl._ Granted we're just getting started, but still …_

She sat on the bench across from Wreav but sprang up almost immediately as she felt the tomkah slow. Her comm clicked in her ear.

_/What's going on Harmon?/_ Shepard's voice was tight.

"Looks like we've got a break in the highway, boss." Jade crouched over the driver's shoulder as he brought the truck to a rumbling halt. "I don't think we're going to make our rendezvous."

_/Unacceptable, there's got to be a way through. We can't miss our window with the airstrike. They'll get creamed./ _

"Looks like there're a couple of sappers already working on a solution." Jade moved to exit the truck, elbowing in front of Wreav to be first out.

"I'll go check on their prog – Ulk!" As she crawled out of the hatch, the butt of her rifle caught on the lip and jerked her back. The big krogan growled a curse and planted a foot in her back to force her through the opening.

"Thanks, asshole." She grunted as she popped free and shrugged the weight of her equipment back into position. Shepard was already out and talking to the lead engineer.

"Shit," Garrus' assessment of the damage was as eloquent as it was long. "We got notification from Artemic Wing, they're gonna be left high and dry if we don't get a move on."

The turian fighter squadron screamed overhead at that moment, as if to punctuate the point.

"Spirits help them," he rumbled. "They're going for it anyway, those beautiful bastards."

"An airstrike isn't enough against a Reaper!" Javik called to Shepard over the plane's roar. "We must join the fight."

"Jesus," Jade breathed as the Reaper rounded the Shroud to engage the Turian air wing. "_That's _what we're up against?"

The behemoth effortlessly cut through the turian ships as Jade watched in awe that rapidly became the adrenaline fueled knife-edge of combat reaction as one of the doomed craft tumbled straight for them. Jade leapt into the hatch of the nearest truck.

"Go, go, go!" She screamed at the driver as she slammed the door on a world gone hellish with smoke and flames and the sound of rending metal. Vaguely she heard Wrex calling out to Shepard for a sitrep. They were already in motion when she replied over the open channel telling them to get out of there. Jade felt a sickening drop in her stomach as the tomkah caught air and nearly bit her tongue off when they landed on the other side.

_/Harmon? Harmon! Where are you! Report!/_ Shepard screamed through the comm link.

"Here! I'm here with Wrex. Made it in just before the crash." Her voice was thick with blood. She spat a bright red gob onto the floor before responding. "You all make it?"

_/Yeah, we're good here. You stay with them, make sure they make it to the Shroud facility. We'll find another way around./_

"Roger that, boss. They'll make it, or I'll die trying."

_/Nobody's dying today, Harmon. Just be there to meet us on the other side./_

"Will do commander."


	15. Chapter 15

Jade leaned back against the truck wall and closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted as the adrenaline of the last few minutes drained out of her. The rumble of the truck jolted her and she winced at the pain. She felt a brisk tap on her shoulder and opened her eyes to a three-fingered hand offering two white pills.

"For the pain," Mordin said as she looked up at him. "Bitten tongue not fatal, but could distract at a critical moment."

Jade took the pills and grimaced as they scraped against the wound. She held the tablets under her much-abused tongue and, as they dissolved, she felt the drugs take effect. She took a sip of water from her suit's filtration unit to help wash the bitter taste out of her mouth, then gave the salarian a look of gratitude.

Mordin nodded and returned to his seat with Eve.

Once the sharp edge of the pain faded, she turned her attention back to the conversation in the truck.

"Have there been any updates?" Jade asked, grunting as she hauled herself upright and moved to the bench seats.

"Shepard's reporting some tremors in the ruins she's moving through," Wrex's tone was censorious. "If you hadn't been over there whimpering over a bumped head, you'd have heard the report."

Jade clenched her jaw and counted the reasons it would be a bad idea to insult yet another of Shepard's allies. Instead, she raised a single eyebrow. "And?"

Wrex gave a snort that half derision and half amusement. "And it's probably Kalros. These are supposed to be her hunting grounds, after all."

Jade shook her head briefly at the krogan leader. "That means exactly dick to me. Who the fuck is Kalros?"

The shrouded female krogan turned her head to regard Jade with steady yellow eyes. "Kalros is the mother of all thresher maws."

"Still nothing," Jade shrugged. "I was on ice when humanity took to the stars, so I haven't got the foggiest as to what a thresher maw is. And, to be quite honest, I fail to see how any of this can help us against that ginormous machine out there."

"Thresher maws are a type of aggressive, territorial, subterranean segmented worm found throughout the galaxy," Mordin pulled up an image on his omni-tool as he spoke. "Highly dangerous species, capable of spitting acid over several hundred meters and known to chase or kill anything that enters its territory."

"Fuck me," Jade opened several files as the scientist sent them to her. "It's like a fucking centipede on some serious steroids. I can't imagine the kind of damage a small one could do, let alone one called the 'Mother of all thresher maws'."

"That's the whole point," If Wrex had been human, Jade would have said he was beaming. "Eve here thinks we might be able to get Kalros to help us out with the Reaper. They're territorial, very territorial, and we know this area has two of the largest Maw Hammers ever made. If anything can call up the ultimate thresher maw, they can."

"You want to call one of those monsters _here_? It's your funeral." She shook her head. "It's a crazy idea but what else can we do? You talk to Shepard about this?"

"Shepard's got enough on her plate," Wrex rumbled. "We'll give her the details once she gets out of the rubble."

They rode on in silence for another few minutes, getting sporadic reports from Shepard's team. Periodically, Wrex would move to the front of the truck and peer out the windshield at the Shroud Facility and the Reaper guarding it.

"Really pisses me off, seeing that damn thing on my planet," he said. "And trying to kill us with poison too. Guess they thought we were too difficult to try to take over our home world the way they did Earth. Nice to know someone in this galaxy still considers us a threat."

Mordin started to comment on how the Salarian Dalatrass' attempt at bribing Shepard into sabotaging the genophage cure was evidence that she considered them a real threat, but Jade had latched on to the krogan's statement about her home planet.

"Wait, these things are on Earth?" Her blood turned to ice as she struggled to keep her face a neutral mask. "How many? When?"

"Yeah, Shepard didn't tell you?" Wrex seemed genuinely confused by Jade's reaction. "They were the first planet hit, after the batarians anyway, but nobody counts them."

Mordin glanced up from the simulations he'd been running on his omni-tool.

"Understood Earth hardest hit so far," His hands still flew over the haptic display as he spoke, making minor tweaks to the cure formula. "Government on Arcturus Station first to be hit, then Luna and large hubs on planet. Only resistance now is small, scattered guerilla units led by Admiral Anderson. Unlikely to be effective, but good for morale. Shepard organizing alliances to support effort to free earth."

He spread his hands in a gesture that encompassed all of them. "Is what all of this is for. Krogan provide support to Palaven, then turians free for assault on Earth."

Jade blinked slowly as all the puzzle pieces fell into place; Shepard's refusal to consider swinging by Earth to let Jade look for her family, how she shut down any time Jade mentioned going home, the pitying looks she'd gotten from some of the crew when she told some of her stories from her time in the field. Her thoughts were roiling at the implications of what the old salarian had said and her emotions weren't in much better shape. But she tamped it all down and put it away. Compartmentalizing, just the way she'd been trained.

"Well," she said slowly and evenly as she fought to keep herself in check and shut her feelings away. "I guess that explains a lot."

She fell silent as Mordin returned to his work on the cure, speaking softly to Eve every so often. Finally Shepard announced that they could see sunlight, they were exiting the catacombs, but there were reaper forces in the city. It was shortly thereafter that the tremors Shepard's team had been reporting.

"Christ, was that Kalros?" Jade turned a delicate shade of chartreuse as the tomkah pitched and rolled. She glanced at the viewscreen that showed the terrain outside the truck. Right now it was focused on the view behind them and she saw, behind Wreav's truck, a fountain of dirt. Vaguely she heard Mordin and Wrex bickering behind her, something about iron in the truck and dietary supplements. She leaned over the driver's shoulder, focused on that fountain of dirt as it gained on them.

"Faster," she mumbled, half to the driver, half to herself. "Must go faster!"

They raced pell-mell through the ruins searching for the rare rocky patch where Kalros couldn't follow, eking every ounce of speed from the cumbersome trucks in an effort to get just another hundred meters on the monster. Finally, they managed to elude the beast in time to pick up the commander. Jade hauled Javik through the door, her face grey with nausea and her mouth drawn into a grim line.

"Move it you ancient asshole," she grunted as she shoved him into the already crowded passenger area and extended her hand to Shepard. The rumble that preceded the massive thresher maw was getting stronger. The screech of rending metal heralded Kalros' return and Jade slammed the door shut on the commander's heels.

"Go, go, GO!" the order came from at least three throats as they raced away from the scene of destruction. In a moment of absurd clarity, Jade realized that, had she not changed trucks when she did, she'd be dead or dying right now. Just like Wreav. Her hands trembled ever so slightly as she made her way back through the press of bodies in the passenger compartment.

Javik gave her a strange look as she brushed past him but held his peace. Jade was grateful to him. This was neither the time nor the place to attempt to pin down what was going through her head. She propped herself up in a corner away from the main players. Shepard, Wrex and Mordin were all talking animatedly.

_Get a grip Harmon._ She shook her head and sipped a little more water to settle her stomach. _You can't afford to lose your cool now. Besides, it's not that different from any other op, you could have died a million times in a million ways before this moment. Just count your blessings and your ammo and get your head in the game. This isn't half over. Not even close._

It seemed that the sacrifice of the second truck had distracted the thresher maw enough to allow them a clean get away. Jade lost track of time and it seemed like mere moments before the tomkah was again slowing to a stop. Jade exited the truck and stared up at the massive machine blocking the path to the shroud.

"That's one of the smaller Reapers," Javik said as he drew even with her. "There are others nearly two kilometers in length."

They listened as Wrex and Eve outlined their plan to Shepard. Jade saw the doubt flicker behind the commander's eyes and the resolve that firmed them when she came to the same conclusion the others had.

"The commander is a remarkable woman," Javik said softly. "This plan is suicide, but she will follow it through because there is no other way forward."

"Yeah, she is," Jade replied. "They broke the mold when she was born."

Mordin pointed out the nearby lab where he could finish the synthesis of the cure, and Shepard nodded to Jade.

"Harmon, I want you to stay with Mordin. We don't know that the three of us will be enough of a target to distract all the Reaper forces so you're on guard duty. No matter what you make sure you give him enough time to finish this." Jade saluted the commander and turned to trot after the salarian's retreating back.

"See you on the other side."


	16. Chapter 16

Jade jogged to catch up with the scientist. She'd faced Reaper forces before, but never with that monstrous machine hanging over her. She flinched as its reverberating horn blew seemingly just over their heads and Wrex laughed at her. She flipped him the bird, not sure the gesture would translate, but at this point not really caring either, and checked the heat sink in her Mattock. A moan rose around them.

"Contact left," she began firing controlled bursts into the advancing cluster of husks. "We've got husks and cannibals incoming people!"

"Protect the female," Wrex bellowed, throwing a group of husks into the air with his biotics, allowing Mordin to pick them off easily.

"Mordin! Stay with Eve," Jade shouted over the chatter of gunfire and the Reaper's roar. "Wrex, play vanguard with me. We can push through this wave. Looks like we've run into the tail end of that Shepard's drawing."

They fell into loose formation around Eve and pressed through the horde, leaving devastation in their wake.

"There!" Mordin shouted. "Lab through that passageway."

"Great, then let's move!" Wrex bulled through the remaining husks scattering them like tenpins.

Jade tapped Mordin's back to let him know she'd cover their rear. "Go, I got it!"

Eve and the salarian disappeared down the hall as Jade mowed down the few husks still on their feet. She backed through the door and punched the door lock, making sure it locked with a scrambling program from her omni-tool. _Probably an unnecessary measure, but what the hell. You never know when one of those smart bastards will show up. Gotta remember to thank Traynor for showing me how to use this thing._

She moved down the hall, stepping over husk corpses and clearing side rooms. Mordin was already bent over a workstation, muttering to himself, when she finally entered the lab. Wrex covered the second exit.

"How much longer will this take?" She shouted as the structure shook under Reaper footsteps. Dust rattled down from the ceiling panels and coated everything.

"Nearly finished," Mordin's already clipped speech had become almost telegraphic. "Jade, need you here."

She vaulted a toppled table and took the tray he thrust at her and followed his imperious gesture to where Eve sat on an examining table. He typed furiously on his omni-tool and Jade watched, fascinated by the dexterity in his three-fingered hands, so different from her own.

_It's actually really amazing we can communicate at all. Evolution shaped all of these species so differently. We're all at the top on our own worlds, but we got there via such wildly varying paths. I wonder what they thought of us, with all of our extra digits and our body hair and general … squishiness. Bet there are a lot of 'aliens' out there who are just as grossed out by us as we are of them._

She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't realize she'd been spoken to until one of those fascinating hands flashed before her eyes, palm up, in a clearly impatient gesture.

"What? Oh shit, sorry Doc," she looked at him sheepishly.

"Fine, need plasmid microinjector," he replied, not looking away from the readings on his display.

"Um," Jade glanced down at the tray covered in colorful ampoules and tools all laid out in neat rows, and gulped.

"It's the blue one with the orange markings," Mordin seemed to have instantly grasped Jade's dilemma and adjusted tack immediately.

"Next time will bring own assistant. Padok Wiks likely a good choice, if a trifle … enthusiastic," he muttered as Jade handed him the proper item. "Still, must make do with assets on hand."

After that, it became a blur of tools and autoinjectors passed between them. Half the time Jade was sure she would screw something up just by being so close to suck delicate work. The other half was spent desperately trying to keep up with the salarian's rapid-fire demands. Occasionally, she would hear Wrex shouting at Shepard of the muffled boom of his shotgun, but she was too busy to let it concern her. Some indeterminable time later, Mordin's patter finally slowed to a stop.

"Finished," he said simply. "Status?"

At that moment, they felt a massive impact rattle the facility.

"Shepard's done it!" Wrex crowed as a second impact rolled through. It made Jade think of the time she'd been in the middle of a howitzer firing line during an op in Afghanistan. The Maw Hammer has the same bone-rattling quality to it. It was heavier and, somehow, more reverberant than even the steps of the massive machine outside. Within a minute, the second hammer began pounding out its primal beat and together they set up a syncopated one-two beat that must have been felt for miles.

"Need to move," Mordin shouted over the din. "Wrex, stay with Eve. Jade and I will go to Shroud."

He frowned, looking at the facility schematics as they exited the lab. "Will have to disperse cure from main control room to bypass STG sabotage."

Jade glanced at him they at the tower above them. It looked like it had taken a lot of damage from the Reaper.

"Lemme guess," she said, lips twisting in a sardonic half smile. "The control room isn't somewhere on the ground floor, easily accessible to us poor grunts."

"Correct," he replied, echoing her grin. "That would be too easy."

"Course it would," she chuckled then drew her rifle. "Better get humpin' then."

By this time, they'd seen enough of each other's fighting styles to move like a team, taking down hordes of husks, cannibals and even the odd marauder without so much as breaking stride. The near constant stream of banter and gunfire was punctuated by the Maw Hammers' heavy beat.

They were halfway across the facility when they felt it, a tremor unlike either the hammers impact or the lighter feel of the Reaper still two stepping above them, harried by the return of Artemic Wing.

"Sounds like Kalros decided to return our cal- OH SHIT!"

The massive thresher maw breached the planet's surface and seemed almost to fly at the Reaper. Jade and Mordin stood a moment in awe of the sight before beating feet to the tower. They dodged falling debris as the machine threw the maw bodily into the tower.

_Fuck, that's not going to do us any favors on our way up. _Jade thought as they ran.

For a moment it seemed the Reaper had done the impossible and driven off the massive animal. But Kalros wasn't so easily defeated. She rose from behind and landed on the invading machine like an avenging angel. Jade saw her wrap it up in a death coil dragging it below the surface and let out a ragged cheer.

"Did you fucking see that?" Jade shouted as both Reaper and Maw disappeared under the churning earth.

"Yes. Now must move quickly," Mordin replied. "Tower took additional damage during fight. Structure likely to collapse soon."

"Fuck me," Jade breathed, still overwhelmed by the sight of the battle but she was once again moving toward the tower.

"Didn't realize you were interested," the old salarian deadpanned, keeping pace and mowing down the remaining Reaper forces. "Unfortunately, salarian sex drive relatively low, likely to be a disappointing encounter for all involved."

Jade choked on a laugh then shot back. "Sure Doctor, that's just what you say to keep all the crazy xenophiles at bay." She dropped another marauder. "I bet you're really a wild man in the sack, you just don't want to have to deal with the hassle of women throwing themselves at you whenever you leave the house."

"Who said I liked women?" Mordin was grinning openly now. Both of them were riding high on their victory.

"Ha! You sly dog!" Jade laughed. "It's always the quiet, nerdy ones you gotta look out for. They're always the closet freaks."

They reached the tower's doors and Mordin rushed ahead.

"Stay here," he said. "Hold lobby, I will go to control room, release cure."

"Fine, just make it quick," Jade took up a post just inside the outer doors and waved at Shepard where she stood inside the lobby proper. "I don't like the look of the sway the tower's developing."

Mordin nodded and made his way toward Shepard. Jade turned her attention back to the courtyard. She took the opportunity to limber up her sniper skills, popping the few remaining husks as they shambled through the wreckage.

/_Harmon, you got the Shroud entrance?_/ Garrus' voice carried all the exhaustion of the day in it. /_Shepard sent us back to the truck. We're just waiting for her to call for a pickup._/

"Roger, Mordin's with Shepard and on his way to the control room with the cure." She let her smile show in her voice. "We did it. The genophage is finished."

/_That's the best news I've heard all day._/ Some of the tension had bled from his flanged voice at Jade's assurance. /_Stay on that exit. We'll pick you up as soon as Shepard gives the word. We've already got Wrex and Eve._/

/_Reaper forces have thinned,_/ Javik reported. /_Extraction should present no problems. The Normandy is on standby._/

"Ah, Javik, I knew we could count on you to focus on the practical at a time like this." Jade grinned at how annoyed the prothean sounded with this whole mission.

An aftershock shivered through the facility. Field temporarily clear, Jade spared a glance at the tower. She caught movement as the elevator raced up the side of the facility. Explosions shook the tower, but didn't seem to slow Mordin's ascent.

"Go, cat, go," she whispered. "Then get that narrow ass back down here so we can celebrate properly."

Just then, Shepard came barreling through the doors and nearly plowed right into the other woman.

"Let's go," she ordered, grabbing Jade's arm and hauling her along through pure momentum. "Garrus and the others are on their way."

"Mordin's not back yet though," Jade dug in her heels after only a few steps, confusion twisting her face. "We have to wait for him."

Another tremor from below set off a chain of explosions throughout the facility. The tower's superstructure creaked and groaned alarmingly and Jade heard an ominous popping as supports finally began to succumb to the abuse they had taken over the last several hours.

"C'mon," Shepard tugged at Jade's arm. The tomkah had pulled up and was visible through the main doors. "We have to go."

"Mordin's still in there and I'll be _damned_ if I leave a teammate behind." Jade yanked her arm out of Shepard's grip and turned to face the other woman fully. Hard gray eyes boring into green as she breasted up to her superior. "You would be too if you were any kind of leader."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Jade knew they were the wrong ones. Shepard's eyes softened for a fraction of a second with some emotion Jade couldn't name before hardening again with determination.

"You have exactly one second to get your ass into that truck or, so help me Harmon, you'll wish I'd left you here with the maw." Shepard hissed, jamming a stiff finger into Jade's cuirass. "I will hand you over to Alliance brass for the scientists to dissect and test so fast your head'll spin. I will _not _tolerate insubordination on my ship or in my command. I don't give a freeze-dried vorcha shit about how fucked up you are from your stint in cryo or how fucking tough your life was before you volunteered to go under. This is my op and these are my rules. You follow them or you get the fuck out of my way. Is. That. Clear."

Jade narrowed her eyes, pouring every ounce of disgust into her glare as she snapped a salute. "Aye aye, Commander."

Then she took the only option available to her. She turned stiffly on her heel and sprinted for the open hatch of the truck wondering if she really had seen the other woman dash tears out of her eyes before turning to follow.


	17. Chapter 17

Jade moved across the Port Observation lounge with the slow and deliberate steps of a practiced drunk. Her goal: the bar at the far end and the, as yet, unopened bottle of green stuff she was sure had to be more potent than the bottle of bourbon she'd already emptied. It had been old, but not as old as she was. She'd reached her goal and was just beginning to pour a generous helping when the doors swished open and Javik stalked into the room.

"Ah! Frogman!"Jade threw her arms into the air in celebration, nearly losing her grip on the bottle."You're just in time for the party! Lemme pour ya somma this green shit. I dunno what it is but it's bound to be potent, the fumes alone are making my eyes water."

"I believe 'frogman' is a better title for the deceased doctor," Javik rumbled while ducking Jade's fumbled and flailing attempts to reach over and under the bar for a second glass. He put a hand on her calf as she began to slither on her belly over the impediment. "Salarians did used to eat flies, after all."

He pulled her gently back over the bar until she collapsed onto a stool with that sort of boneless grace only professional dancers and the truly drunk were capable of.

"Did they?" Jade asked as she regarded the prothean with alcohol-bright eyes.

"Yes," he replied. "And humans used to live in caves."

"Oh psssht," she waved her free hand and spat unintentionally all over the glass she was cradling. "Everybody knows that." She took a sip of the liquor, the burn made her gasp and choke on her next words.

"Whew," she croaked once the coughing fit had passed. "That's definitely the good stuff. But back to what I was saying, everybody comes from primitive roots. The salarians ate flies, humans lived in caves, I bet the asari used to paint on walls and the turians would mount the heads of their kills on spears. Hell, I imagine even the mighty protheans had their humble beginnings."

He shot her a quick unamused glance but was saved from having to answer questions about his people's history by the changeability of Jade's drunken wonderings.

"So what brought your worship up here amongst us lesser beings anyway?" She laid her head on her folded arms and rolled it to look up at him. "You almost never come up here. Not even to eat, if some of the stupider crewmembers are to be believed."

"You were late," he said simply. Since their first all out brawl in the hangar bay, the pair had taken to sparring after the dayshift ended. Jade snorted then rolled her face back down into the hollow of her arms.

"It was kinda a rough day," she mumbled. "I figured if Shepard could stand down for a bit, then so could I."

"And you chose this disgraceful display to 'stand down'?" Javik's disgust at Jade's inebriated state was clear in both his tone and posture. "If you were one of my soldiers, I'd have you publicly flogged then placed on the nearest Reaper infested planet to relearn your duty to the Prothean Empire."

"Well then, it's a good thing I'm not under you," Jade shot the alien a crooked grin. "Well not under your command, anyway. Wait that came out wrong. I don't want that! To be under you, I mean, in any sense of the word. Or over you! Not really feeling the over you thing either. Next to is good, next to is perfect! I like next to! No unfortunate connotations there!"

Javik simply gave the woman a look of mixed annoyance and confusion.

"Anyway, you should loosen up a little, like me!" She stood to demonstrate how loose she was, managing a couple of staggering steps before collapsing on the sofa. "Oof. I mean, we earned it down there today. We helped forge a peace that everyone, literally everyone in the galaxy, 'cept Commander Shepard of course, thought was impossible. We deserve a celebration! Besides, that damn brave, brilliant, crazy lizard-man deserves more than just a goddamn plaque, so I'm fucking celebratin'! Even if nobody else is."

Javik stared at her for what seemed like an eternity until, finally, he made a frustrated noise and turned on his heel.

"I never thought I'd see Shepard that angry," Jade said, lolling her head against the back of the couch. "I swear her eyes were glowing orange when she gave me that 'get your ass back in line' speech."

Javik stopped short of the door. "She was hurting very badly." He turned back and leveled his baleful yellow glare on the smaller woman. "She did not wish to leave the salarian. Your insubordination did not help matters."

"I know," she squinched her eyes shut. "I just …"

She leaned forward and finally met his eyes. "You ever have to watch a teammate die and know, _know_, that if you were just a little faster, a little smarter a little _more_ they wouldn't have had to die?"

"Yes," he said simply.

The silence stretched taut between them, until he sighed and moved to the bar to pour a glass of water. He carried it over to Jade and handed it to her, moving the vile green concoction further away.

"I was the commander of a team very similar to this," he began. "It was our responsibility to measure the boundaries of the Reaper invasion and provide support to key areas as necessary. The battle had raged for centuries at this point. This was is all I've ever known. We were on a planet in what your people call the Hades Nebula when we found it; one of the massive monuments the Reapers leave behind them to indoctrinate the unwary. The tunnel system it was in was unstable and our weapons fire against the husks there triggered a partial collapse. They were stuck on the side with the monument. I was on the outside, along with all of the explosives necessary to destroy the thing. By the time I returned with reinforcements and equipment, it was too late."

"They were overrun?" Jade asked gently.

"No," he replied, scrubbing a hand over his face. "They had been indoctrinated. But I didn't know that then. It wasn't until later that the full extent of my folly was revealed."

"Fuck," Jade breathed, watching the emotions chase each other across his alien face.

"In time, they indoctrinated the others, until I was the only one left," he opened his eyes to give Jade an even look. "I was forced to kill them myself."

"Fuck," Jade sipped the water in front of her and cleared her throat. "Suddenly I feel like the rich kid at Halloween bitching about getting Tootsie Rolls instead of Reese's Cups when all anyone around him got was candy corn."

She shifted under Javik's even, yellow glare and cleared her throat again.

"Never mind, um …"

_Tit for tat, Harmon. You started this little sharing circle and he's sure as shit not going to let you out of it. I don't think he'll even buy the "drunk person abruptly changes the topic" gambit._

"I, uh," she sipped her water again then sighed in defeat. "My, well, we were never actually married, but we may as well have been. Let's call him a partner then, for lack of a better word."

_You're rambling Harmon, get your head out of your ass and tell the damn story!_

She took a deep breath, centering herself and reaching for the calm, still place where killing was easy and she could talk about Joe without completely breaking down.

"My partner died because of me," she began. "I left the safe house after a mission, but before we were back home. I was trying to maintain our cover, but really I was just bored waiting for the extract plans to fall into place. So I went to the market, couldn't have been more than three or four blocks away, but when I got back …"

She sighed and scrubbed her hand over her eyes, disguising the tears that sprang up as she thought of her lover. _Damnit, this is the last time I go swimming in Mnemosyne's pool while plastered. Plays merry hell with my control._

"They, uh, damn," she cleared her throat and swallowed hard around the lump in her throat to get her voice back under control. "He was attacked while I was out. I made it back just in time to see them put a bullet in his head. If I hadn't left that day, or if I'd spent even five minutes less at the market, I could have saved him, could have tilted the odds in our favor. There were only six of them. We'd faced worse odds before."

They sat in silence for a moment, both of them staring at the bulkhead a while, lost in their own thoughts and memories, before Jade stood quietly and made her way to the door. As she palmed the lock, Javik finally broke the silence.

"Did you avenge him?" His voice had taken on a smoother, more lyrical quality, like spring water over a bed of gravel. "Did you kill the ones who stole your mate? Did they pay?"

Jade paused a moment, staring at the green hologram on the door, before turning eyes gone cold and hard as the vacuum of space on the prothean.

"In spades," she said, the banked fire of her rage flaring bright for a moment and finding its echo in the cold, alien eyes that regarded her. "Every one of them paid. With interest."

They stayed that way a moment, sharing the rage of people who knew what it was to have absolutely nothing to lose. Javik nodded, once, in recognition and Jade returned it before leaving him alone in the gathering darkness.


	18. Chapter 18

Jade was nursing a mild hangover when the announcement came over the shipboard comm for all of the ground team to assemble immediately in the briefing room.

_I think I should thank Cerberus for the upgrades. _She sipped her coffee to wash down the aspirin she'd begged from Chakwas. _I don't think I should even be mobile this morning, let alone coherent and functioning. They must have done one hell of a job on my liver if all I'm sporting is a slight headache._

She wove her way around the crowded table, handling her coffee cup like a Navy Chief. Traynor was fiddling with the holographic display, swearing under her breath before she finally broke down and asked for EDI's help. In a matter of moments a hologram of the Citadel sprang into view over the table and Shepard stepped forward.

"Okay people, I know you were all looking forward to a little shore leave when we docked, but, as of twenty minutes ago, that's cancelled." A murmur ran through the room. "When we exited the Widow relay we lost all contact with Citadel Traffic Control."

EDI's mobile platform piped up, "It is a combination of active scrambling and simply nothing being broadcast over either open or official channels."

"Right," Shepard said. "About ten minutes ago, we picked up a looped message from Commander Bailey, C-Sec Chief for those of you out of the loop. Cerberus is on the Citadel. They've overrun C-Sec and, presumably, the rest of the station as well."

Her words hung in the air like thick, greasy smoke choking out whatever conversation still lingered in the corners of the mess.

"Shit." Vega's succinct expletive articulated the unspoken feeling of the entire team. Garrus was nodding his head grimly as Shepard continued.

"We're going in to back them up and we're going in hot." Three paths lit up in the hologram. "I need everyone on deck for this. Once we secure the docking area we're going to split into three teams and sweep our way to the embassies."

Shepard's voice grew hard. "The galactic government _must _ be preserved at all cost. They're a pain in my ass most days, but I didn't sacrifice a goddamn third of the human fleet three years ago just to watch them fall under Cerberus influence now. The salarian councilor claims he's got some damning information on Udina and I've been waiting a long time to nail that greasy bastard to the wall."

"James, you and EDI will go through here." Shepard traced a finger down one glowing path. "This will take you through the docks and warehouse districts. Cerberus is in complete control of the docks, so expect heavy resistance. It's also the site for most refugee operations so make sure you check your targets. Do what you can for any civilians you come across, but your focus is to get to the embassies."

James folded his arms and nodded, his usual jovial demeanor set aside as soon as the seriousness of the situation was revealed.

_Lot of leadership potential in that one, _Jade thought. _He may look like a refrigerator on legs, but he's got a good head on those massive shoulders._ Her attention snapped back to the briefing when Shepard called her name.

"Jade, Javik, you'll go through the wards." A second path glowed brighter on the display. "Shortly after we picked up the message from Bailey, I got a call from a second contact on the Citadel, a drell, name of Krios." Here Shepard's voice hitched oddly and she seemed to have to force her way through the next bit of the briefing. Garrus, too, had gone unusually still at this statement.

"He was in a Presidium storefront when we made contact, pinned down but on his way to C-Sec headquarters." A blue dot sprang to life along the second team's route. "If you can make contact with him, do so. I gave him our comm freaks and transponder codes, but you may not see him at all so don't stress it. Just make it to the embassies and be prepped to escort the councilors back to the Normandy if necessary."  
Javik snorted derisively and opened his mouth to say something, but Jade elbowed him sharply in the side and Shepard continued the briefing, either ignorant of the near interruption, or ignoring it. He shot Jade an evil glare and rubbed his side. Their weeks of sparring had given her an unparalleled knowledge of the weaknesses in his armor. Jade simply shook her head once and focused on what Shepard was saying.

"Liara and Garrus will be with me," Shepard said as the third path on the holo brightened. "We'll take the most direct route to the embassy, through C-Sec. It's also through what EDI assures me is the heaviest concentration of Cerberus troops."

A vicious grin spread across her face. "They're going to be very surprised when we come knocking on their back door. Once we secure the council on the Normandy, we'll be going back in to support C-Sec and help them mop up whatever Cerberus forces are left."

She met each team member's eyes in turn and, to a man, they all nodded in acknowledgement of the plan.

"Alright, we'll be performing a combat drop on the C-Sec dock in fifteen minutes. You all have seven to get locked and loaded and in the shuttle bay. So move your asses."

At that, the order of the briefing broke into the controlled chaos of pre-battle preparation. Westmoreland and Campbell had received special orders to suspend their security sweep for the special circumstances so the ground teams streamed through and made their way to follow Shepard's orders.

Twelve minutes later, Jade had performed a final systems check on her weapons and was giving Javik's armor a once over when Joker's voice cut over the intercom.

"Sixty seconds to drop point. I sure hope you know what you're doing." His voice was tight. "None of the Cerberus ships have noticed us yet, but we won't be hard docking this time, so mind the gap and good luck."

The bay doors rumbled open as they piled into the shuttle and Cortez completed his preflight checklist. Jade's breathing unconsciously slowed as her prebattle jitters transformed into that diamond focus Joe had so admired about her. She was truly in her element when the time came to put bullets down range.

The Normandy's engines screamed as it entered the station's artificial atmosphere and the shuttle surged out of the bay and into the bowels of the Citadel. They passed a number of small battles, microcosms of the Citadel at large. They raced through the Citadel, the team hung on like grim death as Cortez navigated tunnels and corners most never knew existed in the massive space station. As they drew near C-Sec headquarters Cortez opened the shuttle's door. She could see the flashes of weapons fire on the ground below.

"Looks like a party down there," Vega's rough accent cut through the cabin. "I say we let 'em know the guests of honor have arrived."

Shepard nodded and waved the team on as Cortez brought the shuttle to a standstill. They surged forward, a tide of lead and death, picking off what enemies they could while they still had superior positioning and the element of surprise on their side. The battle was as fierce as it was short. It might have been harder with a smaller team but against all seven of them Cerberus didn't stand a chance. It was over in a matter of minutes and Shepard was bending over a fallen C-Sec officer.

"Bailey, you going to make it?" She asked helping him to his feet.

"Yeah," the older man grunted, leaning heavily on Shepard's armored shoulder. "I've taken worse hits. Let's get inside; we're too exposed out here."

Inwardly, Jade concurred, there were too many entrances to the bay and there was no telling when another wave of Cerberus goons was going to come sailing in after them. She shook her head to clear the buzz of battle from her ears and followed Shepard and Bailey into C-Sec headquarters proper. She listened with hsalf an ear to Bailey as he hooked into the network. In a matter o f moments they were connected and their omni-tools updated with their routes and C-Sec comm frequencies.

"All right people," Shepard said. "You all know the mission, you have your routes and objectives. Use comm channel 7.246 zeta and stay in contact. We're not trying to be sneaky here. I'll see you at the rendezvous point. Keep us updated on your progress. Good hunting."

Shepard led her team through the far doors as the others headed to their own paths. Jade slammed a fresh clip into her Mattock and tossed a second to Javik. He nodded at her, snatching the clip out of the air, and they moved through the door. Resistance wasn't immediate. They ran into their first group of Cerberus operatives shortly after leaving C-Sec headquarters and after that first group, opposition was near constant.


	19. Chapter 19

"Damnit Javik! Get these bastards off me!"

Jade crouched behind a kiosk, waiting for her shields to regenerate. The structure rattled under the sustained fire of a turret and several troopers were working their way around its line of fire, trying to get a bead on her. She'd lost track of Javik in the chaos of the battle. Last she'd seen of him, he'd been diving for cover a few kiosks down, the green of his biotics flaring in a barrier as his shields shattered.

Finally, after an eternity of crouching and crawling, Jade saw the transparent blue flash as her combat shields reinitialized. She mouthed ancient benedictions to gods she didn't believe in as the flash coincided with a break in fire from the turret. Faster than thought, she rose and lobbed a grenade at the damn thing, counting on her shields to block return fire from the Cerberus soldiers.

She needn't have worried. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the flash of Javik's particle rifle as he cut down the troopers closing in on her position. The turret disintegrated in a satisfying crump of high explosives and an instant later, silence ruled over the erstwhile battlefield.

"Nice shooting, Tex." Jade pulled her helmet off and swiped a strand of sweat sodden hair from her face. The damn thing was a technological marvel, sensors and cameras allowed her to see and hear better with it on than any human could ever hope to do naturally, but it was hotter than Satan's asshole in uranium britches. She accepted a bottle of water from Javik, rinsed her mouth and spat into a planter.

"How many of those sumbitches you fried this mission?" She asked, sipping the water and downing another aspirin from her field kit. _Adrenalin may do wonders for a hangover, but we've been fighting almost constantly for the last hour. Reaction headache's gonna be a bitch if I don't stay on top of it._

"Enough," he answered, sneering. "These indoctrinated simulacra are not worthy of noting their deaths. Like killing trained animals."

Jade snorted and moved to down the rest of her water. She froze, bottle halfway to her lips as she caught a flicker of motion on the edge of her vision. Every nerve shrieked alarm as she dropped the bottle and scrambled for her Mattock. Javik, trusting her instincts implicitly, immediately brought his own weapon to bear.

"You see that?" Jade scanned the wreckage around them, straining her eyes and ears to catch any movement, cursing herself for removing her helmet. Her own heartbeat pounded in her ears, drowning out Javik's response as the stood, back to back, searching the Presidium rubble. A long minute passed before they relaxed marginally. Jade scooped up her helmet and jammed it on her head and Javik checked their route on his omni-tool, both keeping one eye on their surroundings.

"We are close," he said, shutting off the orange glow. "Stay alert. I expect resistance will only increase from this point forward."

Jade nodded and gestured for him to take point. They cleared another two Cerberus nests in the next two blocks. They fought seamlessly, all of their sparring and practice in the cargo bay after hours allowed them to cover each other's weaknesses. They hardly even needed to speak, knowing, almost simultaneously, how their partner would react to a given situation within a fraction of a second.

_Haven't fought this well with anyone else since Joe died,_ Jade thought as she slid around a corner in a low crouch, as Javik took high. _Never thought I'd find that again, let alone with a damn alien._

After the second nest Javik collected heat sinks to replenish their dwindling reserves as Jade made sure none of the Cerberus mooks were "playing possum." She fired two rounds into the last centurion's head and turned to join Javik when something caught her eye. This particular soldier was sporting an unusual configuration on his rifle. Jade crouched to scan it with her omni-tool. Cortez had once told her he could use any information he could get on enemy armament to help improve their own stocks, so she kept her eyes open for anything interesting. She only had a fraction of a second to register Javik's shout of alarm before a slender, fast-moving blur tumbled into her view.

Time crawled to a stop as the woman in Cerberus colors flashed a blade through a complicated pattern. _Who the fuck brings a knife to a gun fight?_ Jade scrambled to bring her weapon up, but the enemy had superior position over her kneeling form and knocked the Mattock out of her hands. Then, in a continuation of the movement that was so fluid as to be inhuman, she brought her sword around in a thrust that _should_ have taken Jade in the throat. Instead, it took her in the left shoulder, sliding into the gap between cuirass and spaulder, as she dove after her fallen rifle. The tip of the blade parted the Kevlar weave with a sound like tearing silk. It was designed to stop high-velocity projectiles, not this comparatively slow, edged weapon.

Jade grunted as the Phantom pressed her advantage and slid the sword deeper into Jade's shoulder. She looked up into the expressionless mask of her attacker, a red haze settling over her vision.

"You think a little stab wound's gonna stop me, bitch?" Jade reached up and grasped the blade with her gauntleted right hand, fighting to keep the other woman from twisting the sword and opening the wound further. "Sister, I've been stabbed, shot, choked, electrocuted and drowned more times than I can count. This. Won't. Stop. Me." Her body shook with the combined shock and strain but, gradually, millimeter by millimeter, she began to draw the sword from her body. She couldn't tell if it was the blood loss or not, but Jade thought the Phantom looked shocked for a moment, before redoubling her efforts to pin Jade to the ground like an insect.

Slowly, the Phantom bore Jade back until she was spread out almost supine, legs pinned beneath her. The edge of Jade's vision flickered with black lightning, as she fought a losing battle for her life and consciousness.


	20. Chapter 20

Jade had nearly given up her struggle against unconsciousness and the other woman when a shadow, somehow more tangible than the others that crowded her vision, rose up behind the Phantom and deftly snapped her head around. Her neck broke with a wet crunch of finality and the shadow flitted away. Jade collapsed, chest heaving with the effort of not passing out, and prayed the damn medi-gel kicked in soon. She felt the cool rush as the gel went to work sealing the wound.

_Shit! That's gonna seal the …_ She reached up and grabbed the blade and groaned. The gel had done its job too well. It had sealed the blade into the wound. _This is going to hurt._ She programmed her omni-tool to produce a short, thin omni-blade and, before she could stop to think about what she was doing, or even if it would work, brought it down across the sword embedded in her flesh. She couldn't tell if the shriek at that moment came from her own throat or the shattering steel.

Jade stumbled to her feet, pistol drawn in a shaky, one-handed grip and looked for Javik. He was across the square, battling five soldiers and pinned down by sniper fire. His mouth was drawn into a thin line of concentration as he fought, but his yellow eyes went wide when he saw her rise from the rubble that had hidden her. She stood, trying to shake the mist from her eyes, as the shadow that had saved her engaged Cerberus forces near Javik. The whine of a Nemesis scope had Jade dropping back down behind her rubble and expanding her Widow. She braced the weapon against her cover and looked for the tell-tale crimson beam that would expose the sniper.

_Gotcha, you sack of shit._ Jade's finger tightened on the trigger and her enemy's head disappeared in a haze of bone and blood. Jade howled as the rifle's wicked recoil tore her wound open again and drove the shard of steel even deeper. Javik was at her side in a flash, administering more medi-gel to stem the resurgent tide of blood.

"Fool!" He ground out as he triggered her armor's manual release to check the wound more closely. "Did you think I could not handle myself against a single Cerberus sniper?"

Jade chuckled weakly then winced as his fingers probed against the broken sword. "I figured you and Mister Shadow there had your hands full."

"Not as full as all that," the newcomer said, crouching beside Javik. "We will need to remove the steel from her shoulder before continuing. The wound will not close properly if we do not."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Jade sighed. "Fine, get me something to MOTHER_FUCKER!_"

Javik held the six inches of blade he'd yanked from her body up for her to see before throwing it to the ground and triggering another rush of medi-gel to the area.

"You could have given me little warning, four-eyes." Jade panted. She sat up and gingerly rotated her wounded shoulder. She winced when it pulled, but the gel had done its work.

"And what use would that have been?" Javik asked handing her the armor he had stripped off to get at her wound. "You would have tensed in anticipation and the damage would be worse."

"Shut up."

"If you are recovered, I believe we should make our way to the embassies." He stood to one side with the posture Jade had come to associate with all assassins. It was fundamentally different from a sniper's, though they shared many traits. Limbs loose and ready, and those dark, wary eyes had clocked all the exits, not only as a avenue of escape for a target, but for himself as well. This was a man used to getting his hands dirty, not simply delivering death from a quarter-mile away. He had killed the Phantom with his bare hands, and Jade saw no trace of a weapon on him now, those leathers left nothing to the imagination.

"I take it you're Krios?" Jade said, grunting as Javik hauled her to her feet. At his nod, she continued. "Shepard said we might run into you out here. Thanks for saving my ass."

"It is nothing." His words had a hollow, rasping quality that Jade didn't think was entirely attributed to his alien physiology. "We should move."

"Agreed." Javik was already on his way out of the square.

Jade threw Thane her pistol. "Here, I don't use the damn thing if I can avoid it. You look like you've probably been handling weapons since the cradle, so it might as well see some use."

His lips quirked in a nearly imperceptible smile and they took off after Javik. They fell into that easy, ground-eating lope soldiers everywhere were capable of, even when burdened with kilos of armor, weapons and ammo. They blazed through several more waves of Cerberus troops before they made it to the Embassies. They'd been receiving sporadic updates from the other teams. EDI and James had run into major opposition on the docks and were still less than half-way to their goal.

/_Harmon, you there?_ /

Garrus' voice over the comm was flat and tinny without his usual flanging inflection.

"Yeah, what's up?"

/_We made it to the Salarian Embassy, but there's no sign of the councilor. How close are you?_ /

"Close," She picked up her speed a little and the others followed suit, listening in silently to the exchange. "ETA, roughly two minutes."

/_Good, we'll keep looking, we think he might be hiding._ Shit!/

"Garrus! What is it?" She picked up her pace even further. The drell seemed to be having difficulties, but managed to keep pace with the other two as they raced for the building ahead. "Garrus! Damnit!"

Jade's world narrowed to getting to where she was needed as fast as possible. Miraculously, there were no more waves of Cerberus troopers to fight through. _Must've finally entered into the area Shep and her team cleared._ Jade thought dimly as she pelted through cubicles and vaulted desks. _Good thing, cuz we'd be smears on the wall if there was someone waiting for us._

Finally, they reached the Salarian Embassy, Javik's omi-tool pinging an alert as they entered. Jade could hear raised voices, but couldn't make out the words.

"Krios, can you hear anything?" Jade turned to the assassin only to find he had vanished some point after they entered the complex. "Fuck, don't trust an assassin to stick around where you can see him." She muttered under her breath as she followed Javik through a side entrance.

Javik suddenly stopped, turned and pressed Jade into the wall, a finger over his lips. He glanced around the corner then drew back and gestured for her to take a look. Jade froze in shock at the tableaux before her.

_Fuck, I hate walking into a hostage situation with no warning._ A man with very obvious cybernetic "upgrades" was holding a hooded salarian at what looked like repulsor point. Shepard was apparently trying to get him to back down but Jade didn't think that was going to work. _I've seen the movies, I know how much damage one of those things can do at point blank range. Christ, Shep, I hope you can pull this one off._

It changed in an instant. Krios stalked in behind the would-be assassin and brought his weapon to bear on the man's head. What happened next was nothing more than a blur of limbs and blows. With the tension broken and the Cerberus flunky's attention on the drell, Jade and Javik entered the room looking for any way to turn the fight to their advantage.

When the operative disappeared, they joined the others, eyes open and weapons ready. Krios' chest was heaving, his lips parted, trying to draw in as much air as possible. Jade noticed, as they traded nods, that his eyes were constricted considerably more than they had been on the Presidium proper, and his hands had developed a fine tremor. _Damn, if I didn't know better, I'd say he was hypoxic._

The air behind Krios shimmered a moment.

"Krios! Behind you!" Jade threw herself to the side as Liara and Garrus covered the councilor. "Let's see how well you dodge crossfire you squirrely bastard." Jade muttered as they opened fire on the operative. But his shields and barriers shrugged their fire off like it didn't exist, and he rushed the drell, sword drawn.

_What_ is _it with these people and edged weapons?_ She maneuvered for a better shot, but the combatants were too close. A biotic blast from Krios separated them for a moment and Jade leapt onto a table for a better shot. She fired until the heatsink glowed white and cursed her preference for semi-automatic rifles when a full auto may have stopped the monster. As it was he didn't even take note of the withering fire she and Javik and the drell threw in his direction. He rushed again.

Jade heard Shepard's gasp and saw Krios fall, but the Cerberus operative was already moving. She slammed a fresh sink home and scrambled after him, Javik and Shepard hot on her heels. She felt the burn of projectiles past her ears and took a knee in the middle of the hall, still firing at the operative's retreating back.

"Coward!" She screamed after him as he vaulted onto the roof of a skycar. Shepard surged past with Javik hard on her six. Krios limped heavily past, shaking Jade from her narrow focus. She caught him as he fell against the door and eased him to a seated position against the frame. Shepard was shaking with rage as she stalked back from the edge of the sidewalk.

"Thane," her voice was rough, whether from screaming profanities at the operative or a deeper emotion, Jade wasn't sure. She reached out to cup one green-scaled cheek. "I'm so sorry."

"I have time, Shepard," Krios' own voice was husky with suppressed pain. "Catch him."

Shepard hesitated a moment, and Garrus and Liara raced through the door with the salarian councilor. She dropped her hand from Thane's face and stood, looking torn.

"We've got them Shepard," Jade said. "You get the son of a bitch, we'll make sure Krios gets medical attention. GO!"

Finally Shepard's face hardened and she turned, calling for Bailey over the comm as she went.

"You're going to be just fine, Krios," Jade cursed as she realized her earlier brush with death had left them dangerously short of medi-gel. With one final look back at the huddle around the door, Shepard climbed into a C-Sec cruiser and tore off in pursuit of the other car.

* * *

**Author's Note**: This concludes chapters I've already completed for this fic. Further updates here will be concurrent with the other places this fic is posted, including the KMeme. I usually update every two to three weeks, depending on what life has in store for me. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Also! I've got some plans for this story but I'd like to bounce them off someone, so if any of you readers are interested in Betaing for me, drop me a line via PM.

Thanks,

WL


	21. Chapter 21

Krios flat lined twice during the ride to the hospital.

Jade and Javik sat in the back of the ambulance watching for possible attacks and trying to stay out of the techs' way.

"This is our only unit of compatible blood," the salarian tech said handing an opaque bag to his asari partner.

"Damn." She hooked it into the IV line. "Lucky to have that much on this wagon. We've just got to keep him alive until we get to Huerta."

"Still no guarantee. Drell rare in galaxy, rarer on Citadel."

The asari activated her comm to report their status to hospital ground personnel. "You're right Selkat." She sighed as she checked Krios' stats again and reported them to the hospital. "They're short on blood and they can't afford to send anyone to look for a compatible donor."

Jade sat up a little straighter. _There may be something I can do about that._

"Do they have a list?"

The asari glanced up from her work, soft, white markings around her eyes giving her a perpetually surprised look.

"I can help track them down if I can get a list." Javik shifted slightly, leaning toward the human.

"What are you doing," he rumbled softly in her ear. "You are injured and in need of medical attention."

"I'm fine," Jade shot back. "Besides, with all the casualties from this attack, my little scratch is so low priority it's not even on the radar." She turned back to the asari, who had been on the line with the hospital again. "So, the list?"

"Sounds like it's pretty short," she said, glancing at a message on her omni-tool. "Apparently he's an existing patient." She nodded at the drell in the stretcher. "So they've already ID'd potential donors." She looked up at Jade. "There's only one, a C-Sec rookie. I'm sending you his info now. If you can track this guy down and bring him in, we may be able to save him."

"Then I shall go in pursuit of this donor," Javik said decisively. "You are in no condition to chase about this station while Cerberus forces still occupy much of it."

Jade raised an eyebrow at him.

"I don't even think so." She cut back, annoyed at his high-handed manner. "You'll waste too much time just explaining _what_ you are. I'm at least a recognized and common species. Most folk have never seen anything like you before."

He opened his mouth to refute her points but Jade pressed on as the pilot brought the ambulance in to land.

"You're also an unknown to Cerberus. They'll have to think twice about attacking the hospital with you there. It's not really their style to go after a goal if they think there's a chance they can't take it." Then she brought out her biggest argument. "Besides, you know Shepard will kill and skin both of us, and not necessarily in that order, if something happens to Krios. You're in better shape to keep that from happening."

The ambulance touched down and they stepped to the side to allow the medical professionals do their job. They swarmed over Krios' stretcher waving a number of tools and readers over his prone body and chattering to each other animatedly.

Javik ground his teeth and looked from Jade to Krios and back. "I will do this," he snarled. "But you will be careful and return as quickly as possible."

"Okay _Dad_." She grinned and rolled her eyes a little. "I'll be sure to gas up the car on my way back too." She chuckled at his long-suffering look and activated her comm channel to Bailey as Javik followed the small crowd of doctors and nurses into the building.

"Bailey."

/_Who the hell is this?_/ His voice was rough with strain and frustration. /_This is an exclusive C-sec channel, so you'd better have a damn good reason for using it!_ /

"It's Harmon, one of Shepard's people. I need your help tracking down one of your guys." She forwarded him the information she'd gotten from the emergency tech. "One of our on-station allies took a bad hit. He could die if I can't get this 'Kolyat' to Huerta pronto. And you know how Shepard is about her allies."

/_Kolyat? Shit, hold on._/

Jade heard a rattle of equipment and series of soft beeps as Bailey looked up the necessary information.

/_All right, looks like he and Lantar are putting out fires in Zakera. Cerberus did something to scramble comms in the area so all I've got is a general area but I'm sending the info to your 'tool now._/

"Great." Jade checked her map. "Any way I can hitch a ride that way with one of your teams? I'm not sure the endorsements on my driver's license cover flying cars."

/_You at the hospital?_/

"Yeah."

/_Then yes. I"ve got a team heading out of there that can put you down in the right area at least. Meet them out front._/

"On my way." Jade broke into a light jog, dodging techs and patients. "Thanks Bailey."

/_Don't thank me, just get that kid to the hospital in one piece._/

"Roger, Harmon out." She burst through the hospital doors just as the C-Sec cruiser touched down.

When Bailey said Kolyat and his partner were "putting out fires" Jade had taken that to mean that he was actually fighting pockets of Cerberus resistance. So it came as a complete surprise for her to find him, extinguisher in hand, fighting a literal fire in a small storefront.

A turian with brilliant purple facial markings intercepted her before she could reach the tall, blue drell.

"State your name and business."

Jade rolled her eyes a little at his brusque behavior. She'd gotten the update, along with the team on the cruiser that Cerberus forces were pulling out after Shepard had pulled some kind of miracle out of her ass. She understood the need, but it was wasting valuable time.

"Jade Harmon, of the Normandy, I'm here from Huerta to get Kolyat Krios. There's been an … incident involving his father."

"Shit, we knew something like this was bound to happen." The turian scrubbed a hand across his face smearing soot and dirt into his plates. "Kolyat," he called over his shoulder to the drell. "You better get over here, you're gonna want to hear this."

She barely got the story out before Kolyat was on the move towards another flying car, Jade hard on his heels.

"Can you handle this, Sidonis?" He asked his partner as he keyed commands into the car's console.

"Sure," the turian replied. "You heard Bailey earlier, Cerberus is pulling out. All that's left is a little clean up. You go take care of your dad."

"Thanks." Kolyat shut the door and the car sped them into the twilight between wards.

The ride back to the hospital was tense. Kolyat grilled Jade on everything she knew about the fight leading up to his father's injury and probed her memory for anything about the man sent to assassinate the salarian councilor.

Jade joined Javik at the door to Krios' room and updated him on what had happened.

"So Shepard was able to thwart yet another of Cerberus' actions," Javik said slowly. "I imagine their leaders are beginning to get very weary of her interference."

"More than weary," Shepard said as she approached. "I've got a feeling this has put me even higher up on their shit list than I was before. Which is pretty impressive, considering I denied them access to the collector base they resurrected me to find. How's he doing?" She nodded at the closed doors behind the pair.

"I think he's stable for now," Jade said, watching the emotions flicker across Shepard's face. "At least the flow of personnel has, kind of, trickled off over the last hour or so."

"Thanks for keeping an eye on him." She frowned and squinted at Jade. "You take a round today?"

"No ma'am got a blade through the shoulder, it's nothing big."

"Well big or not, you'd better get Chakwas to take a look at that." She nodded toward the door. "Dismissed, and Javik, make sure she gets to the doctor. You know how soldiers are."

Javik nodded and took Jade's elbow to steer her out as the she stared open mouthed at both her commander and the alien.

"Why … I…" She sputtered.

"Come," Javik could barely suppress the note of humor in his voice. "I believe we both have orders to follow."


	22. Chapter 22

"This would be faster if you could hold still." Chakwas leveled a glare at Jade as she aimed the ultrasound wand at the blonde woman's wound.

"Sorry." Jade gripped the edge of the examination table and shot a look of pure loathing to where Javik stood an impassive watch at the Medbay doors. "It tickles. Sort of."

"I understand." The doctor wiped away the last of the medi-gel crusting the wound. "You know, when I joined the Alliance medical corps, I never imagined I would be treating sword wounds."

Jade stared in amazement at the amount of damage she'd taken in that one encounter. It hadn't looked anywhere near that bad before Chakwas and Javik had peeled her undersuit off, revealing the raw, red ruin of flesh. She snorted and winced as Chakwas began to gently probe the wound.

"I can see where the initial stroke landed," she said as she pulled an inch-long splinter of steel out, dropping it into a metal pan. "But would either of you like to explain how a single sword thrust could cause such extensive damage?"

"Part of that's from the bitch who stuck me." Jade grunted as the doctor removed more debris that had gotten sealed into the wound when the medi-gel had been applied. "She twisted that damn blade around like a sumbitch when I didn't go down the way she wanted me to."

Jade shifted again under Chakwas' ministrations. It didn't hurt, exactly, the 22nd century pain blockers were too good for that, but it _did_ feel damn odd.

"And the rest?" The doctor asked as she began to close the wound with neat, precise stitches.

"Ah, that would be from when our friendly, neighborhood prothean over there decided I didn't need to be wandering around a battlefield with half a foot of steel in my shoulder." Chakwas changed her bloody gloves for fresh and began to bandage Jade's wound as she listened, a faint smile playing about her lips.

"I think you took about half the medi-gel my suit had already administered, along with a healthy chunk of skin when you pulled that out, Javik." Jade glared at her partner in mock anger. "I'm still pissed about that dirty trick you pulled to do that, by the way."

"It was necessary." The prothean replied simply, his voice perfectly even, as though he was speaking of a minor ship repair, or the weather. Jade shot him an annoyed look, but held her peace.

"Well, it doesn't look as if your assailant managed to hit anything vital." Chakwas said as she administered a cocktail of anti-biotics and pain killers. "You've got a notch in your collarbone but it seems your Cerberus 'upgrades' are already taking care of that and the damage to your soft tissue. You'll probably have a scar, but no other lasting effects. All in all, I would say you were a very lucky woman." She tapped a few note into her omni-tool. "That appears to be a running theme on this ship."

Jade chuckled as she gingerly pulled her shirt over her head. "I noticed."

The doctor arranged her tools in the sanitizer and began straightening up the Med Bay. "Speaking of Cerberus upgrades, you never did tell me what happened to your arm."

Jade sighed and closed her eyes against the memories.

_"I'm a field agent, Brian!" Jade paced in front of the director's desk like a caged beast, ready to rip the throat out of anyone who came too close. "This sitting in front of a screen thing is _killing _me!"_

_"I know – "_

_"No, you don't! You wanted to be the director. Hell, you lobbied for the position! Sitting behind a desk and staring at reports is right up your alley! You've been flying a desk so damn long I wonder if you can even remember what it felt like to get your hands dirty!"_

_It was the end of the day, and since there were no operations in play currently, the compound only hosted a skeleton crew of techs and analysts. Which was why there were no witnesses to Jade's outburst against the director. Brian stood firm in the face of Jade's vitriol but at her last accusation his normally warm, blue eyes turned flat, and hard as sea ice._

_"My days in the field aren't so far behind me that I've forgotten the golden rule the way you have, Operative Harmon." Unlike other men who strode or shouted or put on other displays when they were angry, Brian Pierce went still and cold. The quieter he got, the more dangerous his mood. "You never go into the field packing dead weight. And with one arm, that's all you are, Harmon, dead weight. I can't use you for anything other than desk work."_

_For a moment, Grey eyes and blue met and clashed in a contest of wills. The unstoppable force met the immovable object._

_Then Jade flinched and looked away._

_"However," Pierce continued in a more reasonable tone of voice now that he had Jade cowed. "You are right about one thing. Your skills are being wasted as an analyst. Neither Typhon, nor the country is best served by keeping you in an office."_

_Jade gave him a sharp look and Pierce smiled, though it did little to warm the arctic chill in is eyes._

_"Which is why I've called in a few favors from some of my friends in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It seems they had a similar situation with one of their Sigma operatives and developed a mechanical prosthetic that can be operated via neural stimulation. Apparently, it's as good, if not better, than the arm humans are born with. I managed to get us one."_

_Jade's eyebrows shot up to her hairline. _It's not often anyone can get those guys to share their toys. Brian must have pulled a lot more strings than I even knew he was capable of if he managed to get DARPA to play ball.

_"I was going to tell you all of this before you interrupted me." Again he gave her that vulpine smile that failed to reach his clear, blue eyes. "You've got an appointment to meet with Monk Kokkalis and several DARPA techs tomorrow. They'll start getting you fitted for the prosthesis."_

_"Shit, Brian, I'm sorry. I should have known you'd be doing everything youcould to get me back into the field. I was way out of line."_

_He waved a dismissive hand to stem any further apology._

_"I wasn't joking about America needing you on the front lines, Jade. You and Joe were one of our best teams. We need you back out there, in the fray, protecting America from scum like the bastards who killed Joe." He clapped her on the back and shrugged into his suit coat. "Now let's get the hell out of here. It's late and I'm dying for a cigarette."_

_"You know that stuff'll kill you, right?" Jade said following him out._

_"That's what they say."_

"Honestly, I literally can't remember what happened when I lost my arm. The psychiatrists called it a kind of dissociative episode and said I may never regain those memories." Jade scratched absently at a scab on her knuckles. "After I lost my arm in Beirut, one of our sister organizations hooked me up with a state of the art, robotic prosthetic. We couldn't clone limbs yet. It ran on nerve impulses and even provided a limited amount of sensory feedback. There were pros and cons to it. It had a grip that could crush steel and couldn't be broken once set, and it could be operated remotely within a sort range via the contacts in my stump. But it never really felt like _my_ hand and the damn thing fell right to the bottom of the Uncanny Valley." She chuckled softly to herself. "After I got that thing I suddenly understood why Luke Skywalker always wore a glove."

Both Chakwas and Javik gave her a blank look.

"Really? Nothing?" Jade shook her head. "A _Star Wars_ reference went right over your head? Damn, you've been deprived, doctor. At least the prothean's got an excuse. I may have to see if I can remedy that situation."

"Perhaps," the older woman replied, smiling softly. "Well, your story explains some of what I found in your scans, and, given Cerberus' reputation for, hmmm – let's call it 'tinkering' – I think I can figure out the rest."

She called up a projection of Jade's scans and focused on the left arm. Then she magnified it until she had a life-sized replica floating before them.

"For whatever reason, when Cerberus began experimenting on you with Lazarus Project prototype procedures and hardware, they chose not to regrow your missing limb, as they did with the commander. Instead, they apparently tested a way of integrating synthetic and organic components." She punched a command into her omni-tool and the display shifted to show it all in a rainbow of colors for all of the different parts. "They replaced all of the bones in your lower arm with an alloy neither EDI nor I recognize. The muscles and nerves are all purely synthetic, but they've been woven around and integrated with your natural ones all the way up into your shoulder."

She highlighted one specific component. "They even managed to conquer your 'Uncanny Valley' by growing your own skin over the top of the synthetic components. It's all so neatly done, I can't even begin to imagine how they pulled it off. It's not like anything I've ever seen before." She shut down the projection and handed Jade a small packet of pain killers, antibiotics and sleep aids. "Whoever created this was an artist. In every sense of the word."

Jade snorted and waved to the doctor as she stalked out of the Med Bay, Javik hard on her heels.

"Is it true, what you told the doctor?" He asked as she began to methodically raid the tiny kitchen. "That you do not remember the events that caused you to lose your arm?"

"Huh?" Jade pulled her head out of the cabinet to give him a confused look.

"I overheard the asari speaking of you to the commander. She said you cannot recall several days, during which your arm was injured beyond repair."

"Oh that? Yeah. I remember getting back to the safe house, like I told you before, and seeing Joe on his knees. After that, it's all a blur until I wake up in the clinic of a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, short one hand. Typhon managed to put together what happened during the aftermath. Evidently, I cut quite a swathe through the terrorist cells in the region. I don't remember a damn thing, personally. The doctors said Joe's death threw me into a fugue state and I'd probably never recover those memories."

He looked thoughtful for a moment, before replying slowly.

"I can help you recover those memories. If you want them."

"What?"

"My people were the masters of memory. We could trade them as easily as your species trades goods. We could even store them in physical objects"

"Huh, sounds like a pretty talent to have." She bit into the sandwich she'd been making as they spoke, then continued around her mouthful. "Don't see what that has to do with my missing memories though."

Javik gave her a mildly disgusted look before continuing. "When your people say that an event or experience has changed them fundamentally, they are not far off the mark. Experiences leave impressions on your DNA. I can read these markers and open the memories they hold to your conscious mind."

Jade chewed thoughtfully, buying herself time before she had to give him an answer. Finally, she looked up from her meal into that even, yellow stare and sighed.

"I appreciate the offer, I really do, but I've read the reports. I did some pretty horrific things to people who, granted probably deserved it, but that doesn't change the fact that, for those few days, I was as much a monster as they were. No, I sleep badly enough at night as it is. I don't need any more ghosts haunting me."

* * *

Author's Note: Monk Kokkalis and Sigma are property of James Rollins who writes the "Sigma Force" series. A group I borrowed from when I created Typhon Command. You should read his books, they're pretty good.


	23. Chapter 23

Jade finished her sandwich in silence under the prothean's careful eye. She waved him down when she finished and stood to go.

"I'm going to take a shower and go straight to bed. No need to escort me, Mother. I think I know the way."

Liara was exiting her cabin as Jade left the kitchen and Jade made a detour around the elevator on the Med Bay side. It wasn't that she didn't like the asari, but ever since the alien woman had displayed her ability to dig up things that _should_ have been ancient history, Jade had felt deeply discomfited when in her company. So she avoided those situations whenever possible.

She rounded the corner of the elevator and stopped dead in her tracks. Shepard was standing in front of the memorial wall with a look of profound grief on her face. She was holding another of the gray nameplates, running her fingers gently over the engraved letters.

"EDI's actually got one of these queued up for each of us. Can fabricate them in a couple of minutes." The light tone she affected tripped and stuck in the black tar of emotion that laced her voice.

"That sounds like our EDI, she's prepared for just about anything." Jade moved to stand next to the commander and looked down at the plaque.

"It wasn't even his wounds that killed him." Tears had begun rolling slowly down her face as she spoke. "He'd been sick for a long time and he just …"

They stood that way for a long moment before Shepard began to speak again.

"We nearly made a go of it, back during the Collector mission." Jade nodded in encouragement. This had the sound of a confession to it and she'd spent enough time around the victims of tragedy to understand this wound needed purging before it festered. "He was such a gentle soul; for all that he was an assassin. And he'd been so wounded, so misused by life. He said I 'woke' him, brought him out of his battlesleep. But Garrus … Garrus was my rock, the one constant in my life.

"He was there for me after the disaster that was Horizon. Warm and safe and _there._ Thane was sick, dying. I didn't think I could handle losing him. He was so calm, so understanding, when I broke it off. He genuinely wished us well. I knew he had feelings for me. And he wasn't the kind of man who did _shallow_ feelings, you know?"

Jade nodded. The tears were flowing thick and fast down the commander's face now, and Jade wasn't far behind. It was easy to compare Shepard's description to her own much-loved sniper.

"When he …" Shepard swallowed thickly. "When he died, his last prayer, last thought, was for me. Even after I walked away from him like I did, he still thought of me at the very end. God, what kind of person am I?"

"Just a person." Jade finally said. "No matter what the vids, or the publicists, or the brass says. No matter how they try to build you up into a hollow god for public consumption and worship. You're still just a person as fallible as any of us. And this?" She tapped the nameplate in Shepard's hands. "This wasn't a mistake. Thane Krios was a good man and you were a good friend to him. You were there when he needed you and that's all that counts."

Jade looked at the memorial plate and, for a moment, she saw another, this one brass instead of grey slate.

"At least you got a chance to say goodbye."

Shepard nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes. She took a deep breath and centered herself, a queer little smile playing around her lips as she stepped forward to attach the nameplate to the memorial.

Jade stepped back and turned to enter the ladies restroom, nearly running into Garrus as he stood just barely around the corner. Suspicion said he'd seen at least part of the exchange.

"Go to her," she said. "I think she's ready for you now."

He looked down for a moment before giving her a short nod and moving to where Shepard stood.

In the restroom, Jade's tears mingled with the tepid water.


	24. Chapter 24

It was macaroni and hot dog day in the mess and, for a change, Jade's schedule permitted her to join the rest of the crew for dinner.

"It's nice to know that, even after almost two hundred years, these things are still only barely palatable." She said to Vega, poking at the hot dog on her tray.

"Hey, you don't want it, I'll gladly take it off your hands."

"Back off, Hardmeat!" She smacked the hand reaching for her meal. "That paw of yours gets any closer and you'll pull back a bloody stump."

"Yowza! You wield a wicked spoon, Gran."

The mess was crowded, crew drifting in and out as they finished their meals. The victory at the citadel and a string of smaller, equally successful missions had kept morale high. Laughter spontaneously broke out at one of the table where Donnelly was sharing stories from the collector mission. A tall, dark-haired man maneuvered around the knot of people, his tray piled high enough Jade rose an eyebrow.

"So that's the new guy Shepard picked up?" She watched the newcomer sit down and tuck into the meal with the kind of enthusiasm she usually associated with teenage athletes.

"Yeah, sort of. Major Alenko's not new, exactly. He was with us when we left Earth. Got hurt pretty bad on Mars. That was about a month before we found you."

"He looks like a clerk." Jade said around a mouthful of macaroni. "Gah! This is worse than the powdered shit you used to get in MREs. I didn't think that was possible."

Vega shrugged and ignored the faces she was pulling. "Looks can be deceiving. He's a Marine, a combat leader. And he was on Shepard's team three years ago when they took down Saren. He's been here since the beginning."

"Well, except for that bit in the middle." Donnelly interjected. "When we went after the collectors. He wasn't there for that."

Alenko spoke up. "You know I can hear you, right?"

_Christ, he _sounds_ like a clerk._ Jade's eyes widened at his breathy, almost girlish voice. _I guess it's a good thing they've got comms to convey orders on the battlefield. I don't think this guy could manage a command voice if his life depended on it._

"Sure I know that Major," Vega replied. "I'm just filling Gran here in on what was already common knowledge. I wasn't dogging you."

"I was."

"Kenneth!" Daniels punched the other engineer in the arm. "Respect your senior officers."

"I'm sorry my unwillingness to work with a known terrorist organization inconvenienced you."

"Oh, it didn't."

The pair glared at each other across the mess table. The tension was palpable and Donnelly wasn't the only one giving the Major the stinkeye. Finally, Daniels managed to pull her partner away.

"Wait a minute – Gran?" Jade arched an eyebrow at her dinner companion.

"Sure," Vega shrugged. "The only person on this boat older than you is the scion of a race that died out fifty thousand years ago. Gran fits."

Alenko glanced between the two, confusion written plainly on his face. Finally, Vega opted to offer him some relief.

"Gran went down for an ice nap back in the early Twenty First Century. Cerberus brought her freeze-dried ass back as part of the same project that resurrected Shepard."

Alenko's eyes narrowed at the mention of Cerberus. "Really."

"Oh yeah," Jade leaned back and laced her fingers behind her head. "Unfortunately, they forgot about me when they abandoned the facility. I don't think they ever expected me to wake up."

"I know what you're thinking, man. But we've had her up against the Dogs since day one." Vega shook his head at the other man's doubtful look. "Hell, ask Shepard what she did on the Citadel. If she was going to cross us, I can't think of a better time. All it would have taken was just a little nudge and everything could have gone sideways."

"Maybe, but forgive me for not taking it on faith. Cerberus isn't particularly well known for making simple plans."

Jade shrugged and stood to take her tray to the kitchenette. "Ultimately what you think is irrelevant. This is Shepard's boat and if she trusts me, then I'll go where she sends me. If she doesn't then I'll be in the brig. You got a problem, take it up with her. I don't have either the time or the inclination to hash it out with you right here and now."

The moment stretched taut as the two clashed silently across the room. Alenko glowered at Jade as though he thought he could discern all of her secrets with a look. But all he met with was utter indifference. _I'm not about to let a jumped up personnelist get under my skin, buddy._ She thought with a small smirk as he dropped his eyes from her cool, gray stare and muttered something about going to find Shepard. _Better men than you have tried and failed to stare me down. Hell,_ she snorted at the memory. _The last guy to successfully pull that move off was Brian and he's more than a hundred years dead and gone._

She shot a look at Vega behind the Major's retreating back.

"_Dios,_ one of these days that mouth of yours is going to get us _both _in trouble. I swear you've managed to piss off everyone on this ship at least once. Granted, the Major's a bit of a _pendejo_ but it's like you go out of your way to push people's buttons."

"It's a gift."

/_She hasn't pissed me off yet_/ Joker's voice was thin and tinny over the shipboard comms.

"That's because you're the only asshole on this ship with a functioning sense of humor." Jade rolled her eyes at the ceiling, knowing his video feeds would pick the movement up. "Besides, your girlfriend is literally the ship. I don't fancy finding out just what she can do when she's pissed."

/_Smart woman. But I didn't call down there just to let you bask in my sparkling personality. Shepard wants to see you both in the briefing room. It seems we've picked up another fetch quest._/

The two in the mess let out simultaneous groans.

"Tell her we're on our way. Just as fast as the elevator can get us there." Jade snagged her jacket from the back of her chair and gave Vega another raised eyebrow.

"Lead the way, Gran." He flashed her a grin as he gestured her ahead. "Age before beaut – Oof! Watch the stomach!"

"Watch yourself, McLargeHuge. Remember, you still haven't stepped up to prove you can beat me three rounds out of five in the ring like you were bragging at poker the other night."

"Name the time and place, Gran." This time, he caught the elbow she threw as the doors closed on them.


	25. Chapter 25

_Jade stood at the open window and reveled in the feel of the cool breeze on her overheated skin. It wound through the room carrying with it the sounds of the sleeping garden without and the scent of rain and a New England autumn. It slithered under her hair and down her back, raising gooseflesh where it went. She shivered as warm lips kissed the nape of her neck and followed the line of her moon silvered shoulder. She reached back and tangled her fingers in thick hair as his tongue traced the freshly healed and exquisitely sensitive scar of a bullet graze on her upper arm._

_A strong hand cupped her breast, thumb stroking lightly at the peaked nipple as his other skimmed the flat expanse of her belly to bury itself in the soft hair at the juncture of her thighs. Jade tipped her head back and moaned low in her throat as a single, deliciously callused finger traced the seam he found there. Strong, even teeth nipped at her exposed throat and she groaned again as the teasing finger dipped briefly between her lips and ghosted across her clit. _

_She felt him smile against her shoulder as her hips bucked involuntarily at the feather light touch. His finger stroked again, drawing another frustrated moan from her. He chuckled and drew a wet line up her neck with his tongue and watched as the breeze and her own arousal drew the skin tight in fresh goosebumps. _

_"Bastard," she ground out, her breath stolen as clever fingers teased her clit and breast. He always knew how to play her body like an instrument. Her own hand strayed back to grasp at his hip and draw his body closer. Her fingernails scored slightly across the dip of his waist, tracing the muscle there. She smiled faintly at his shuddered breath before catching her own as his hand at her breast tweaked her nipple. _

_"Hm, I thought that was what you liked about me." He sucked on her earlobe, worrying it lightly with his teeth. She retaliated by raking her nails through his hair, pulling lightly. _

_It was always like this between them; a contest. Who could get the cleanest or most kills in an op. Who could complete their mission without any kills at all. Who could make the other moan with as little as a word. Who could make the other beg. Who made who come first. Jade pushed back against him, grinding her ass against his straining cock, making his breath rasp in his throat. _

_"It is." She turned in his arms and pulled him against her. She leaned back against the window frame and wrapped one long, lithe leg around his waist. She threaded her fingers through his hair, pulling his head back and sucking lightly at his neck. His cock slipped down between her legs and rubbed maddeningly against her slick heat. She began a gentle, rocking motion that didn't, quite, have him slipping into her. "But remember two can play at that game," she muttered then traced the shell of his ear with her lips._

_He drew a hissed breath through his teeth, wrapped his arms under her thighs and braced her against the wall. He entered her with one long stroke, conceding the game. Her laugh of triumph faded into a gasp as he thrust again. _

_The storm hovering on the horizon broke at that moment._

_The hollow sound of heavy raindrops on black nylon drowned everything else in a rush of noise grey as the clouds above them. Brian's arm tightened around her shoulders as the thunder of rifle fire cracked through that oppressive drumming and the glossy black casket disappeared into the earth. Brian's eyes glowed brightly in the dimness under the umbrellas, under the clouds, under the mourning. _

_A lone bugle cried out, giving voice to the wailing in her heart and mind she would not give voice to._

_"Day is done, gone the sun."_

_"You're not supposed to be here, you're dead."_

_He raised one arm against the glare of the sun. Blood trickled down his forearm and formed a sticky crimson pool in the crook of his elbow. The sound of it hitting the sandy soil beneath their feet echoed like a gunshot. _

_"Have you heard from Ana lately?"_

_"Did you hear me? You're dead! You can't be here!"_

_He finally turned to look at her, the red ruin of his face fully revealed in the bloody light of the setting sun. "Of course I am. We all are."_

_Bodies crowded around her. Sweetums, his face melting like soft wax on a hot day as the bioagent literally ate him alive. Bit Monkey, her eyes empty sockets in her head. Photog, vomit and blood streaming down the front of his shirt. Fatale, head lolling grotesquely oh her broken and twisted neck. Even Duke, who shouldn't have been capable of holding himself upright on his shattered legs, was there converging on her like all the others._

_All of them, bodies on her conscience. And there, in the back like a faint specter, the silhouette of a little girl. _

_"No, no it isn't supposed to be like this!"_

_"You always were an idealist."_

Jade stared at the smooth grey bulkhead above her head listening to the frantic drumming of her heartbeat in her ears, sweat prickling along her hairline. She forced her breathing to slow.

In.

Out.

She focused on the techniques she'd gotten in therapy an age ago.

In.

She pulled fresh, clean, slightly cold air with the faint antiseptic tang left by the scrubbers, in through her nose, deep, deep into her lungs.

Out.

Slow, controlled, pushing the panic and fear out through her lips along with the stale air.

In.

Out.

It forced her thundering heart to slow, remember its normal patterns.

Her body slowly came back under her control. Her mind was another matter. She sat up and scrubbed the film of sweat from her face and wished she could do the same with the unease her dream had left behind. It was late, deep in the ship's night cycle, judging by the noises coming from the life support machinery in the room.

_Need something to distract me._

She stood up and paced the breadth of the room a moment before beginning a series of calisthenics. Push-ups, sit-ups, planks, bicycles, flutter kicks, and triceps dips against the foot of her bed, fifty or sixty of each before beginning the series over again. Sweat beaded on her bare arms and torso, but it wasn't enough to keep her mind from returning to the dream.

Finally, in desperation, Jade dragged the footlocker from the Cerberus research facility out from under her cot. She'd put off opening it for ages, afraid of what it might reveal. Tonight though, she would risk whatever the box held for the distraction it provided.

There was a faint hiss as she broke the seals. The top layer was a stack of clothing: black t-shirts and cargo pants of a brand she recognized from her trips to the Citadel. They were high quality and expensive. The weave had microprocessors what converted the wearer's body heat into a passive kinetic barrier. She frowned and set the clothing and matching boots aside, but it only lasted a moment. The next layer held a familiar black shape.

"Damn," Jade lifted the Beretta reverently from the foam lining of the weapons box. "I have missed you." Rapidly she field stripped and inspected the weapon. She let out a low whistle at the light sheen of lubricant on the internal components. "Somebody has kept you in fine form, my dear."

She reassembled the pistol, set it back in its case. The entire kit, along with spare clips and boxes of ammunition went next to the clothing on the floor and she lifted out a second box. This one she recognized immediately. It had been her mother's. She ran her fingers lightly over the tarnished brass plate engraved with her parent's names and wedding date. She reveled for a moment in the feel of real walnut in her hands before opening the lid. So much of this new world was synthetic or plastic, or steel. She'd almost forgotten how even a piece of dead wood could still feel so alive.

The box originally held the family silver but, after her parents died, Joe had repurposed it for her tenth anniversary with Typhon. Jade could recall every detail of his face that day as she opened the lid. The box held death given glittering silver form. Her knives winked like old lovers against the black velvet lining.

She lifted one free of its molded bed and examined it minutely. Like everything else in the footlocker, these too had been meticulously cared for. There were no obvious signs of age, despite the nearly two centuries that had passed since Jade last saw them. She would have suspected they had been replaced had the blades and grips not borne the scars of countless campaigns.

After a long moment, this box too was set aside. She carefully lifted out the tray the weapons had rested on and delved deeper into the container. She hoped, at some point, to discover who and why her belongings had been so scrupulously cared for.

Layered along the bottom of the box were all of the commendations and medals she had been awarded during her time with Typhon. They had been kept in a vault at Typhon Headquarters before she'd gone under, never to see the light of day. None of the operations she'd participated in to earn them had been scheduled for declassification for years, if ever.

Jade frowned briefly and counted the slim blue commendation folders and plastic clamshell cases that held the matching medals a second time and, again, came up with an odd number. She began to open the medals one at a time, trying to clear up the discrepancy. It didn't take her long. Three boxes in and her breath caught in her throat.

Gently she lifted the beaded metal chain free of the medal case. The jingle of metal tags against a single, slightly distorted, .300 Winchester Magnum cartridge echoed in the empty room. It reminded Jade to breathe. She slipped the chain around her neck and kissed the bullet briefly before tucking it snugly into her sports bra, between her breasts.

She began piling all of the items in back into the footlocker, replacing each item exactly back where it had come from: awards, tray, guncase, knife box, pants, shirts. She reached for the boots, knocking one over. A small, distinctly modern, optical storage disk fell out of the toppled boot and skittered across the floor. Curious, she plugged it into the small portable console Traynor had scrounged up a couple of weeks after Jade came aboard. The disk was not encrypted.

The first several files she flicked through were simply copies of her mission reports and notes from Brian. There was an entire folder of photos: candid photos of Brian, Jade and Joe at a barbecue with their arms around each other's necks; Jade and Ana laughing at the beach; Brian visiting a much younger Jade in the hospital, a tiny, pink bundle cradled in her arms; the four of them in costume one Halloween. She slowly paged through the pictures, letting the memories wash over her.

The last image faded and the program automatically opened the next file. Jade stared at the screen a moment before finally comprehending what she was seeing: an assassination order against the U.S. Ambassador to Iran. Jade sat up and read the document more carefully. There hadn't been an embassy in Tehran when she went into stasis. There wasn't a whole lot of detail, just the name and description of the target. The name.

Ana Mackenna.

"Oh god."

Jade walked into the bathroom, smiling and nodding at Daniels as they passed in the doorway. She slowly washed her hands, giving an unusual amount of attention to the process. After a moment, she simply stood, head hanging and arms braced against the cool steel as though it was the only thing keeping her upright.

A rhythmic thumping echoed through the small room. Jades shoulders shook with each impact as she pounded her fist against the counter, steadily increasing her force until all outside sounds were subsumed in the smack of flesh on steel.

"I do not think the commander appreciates your renovations of her ship's facilities." Javik stood just inside the door, leveling a cool, even glare at her.

One final punch to the counter left a clear, fist shaped dent. Jade whirled on the prothean, eyes glowing crimson as her implants, normally better integrated than Shepard's, fought against rejection.

"I don't see as that's any of your concern."

/_Javik, the men's room is on the port side of the ship._/

"Cram it, EDI." Jade ground out, advancing on the alien. "What are you doing, Javik? Come to check on your primitive, human pet?"

His eyes narrowed at her belligerence. Jade sighed and made a visible effort to control herself, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. What can I do for you?" The red light was fading but not quickly, a lingering sign of her inner turmoil.

For a long moment he only stared at her, long fingers twitching at his sides. Finally, he turned on his heel and stalked out.

"You are needed in the War Room."

She watched the door iris closed behind him and leaned to rest her burning eyes against the cool metal of the bulkhead. "Damnit."


	26. Chapter 26

Jade pinched the bridge of her nose and counted to ten mentally. Apparently, even in the future, you couldn't escape paperwork and the anal retentive pencil pushers that went with it. Ten wasn't high enough.

"Tell me again why I am in the War Room, Specialist Smith. The short version this time, if you please."

"You failed to appropriately complete item 3F in your mission report from yesterday's mission to the planet Watson."

"Looks filled in to me."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, 'motherfucking fetch quest' is not a proper explanation of the purpose of the mission."

"Smith?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"What would _you_ call going planetside for a couple of hours to pick up some lost doodad some asshole on the Citadel left behind when they bugged out?"

The young man gawked at her for a moment, then made a visible effort to collect the wits Jade had scattered with her exasperation and her, apparently genuine, interest in how he would have filled the block.

"I'm just going to alter these to read something along the lines of 'requested recovery of item necessary for war effort'."

"Sounds good to me." Jade shrugged. "But did you really need me here for that?"

"Ah, not really."

"Great." She turned to go, massaging her aching temples. _God save me from personnelists._

The door swished open and Jade stepped through, still cursing the literal mindedness of staff NCOs when raised voices cut through her internal dialogue. Shepard and Alenko were on opposite sides of the conference table staring each other down. Their own intense conversation had masked the opening and closing of the War Room door.

_I wish EDI would warn me before I walk into shit like this. It's almost as awkward as the time I caught Donnelly and Daniels three quarters of the way to Funkytown on the drive core console._She crouched behind a stack of crates and prayed for it to be over soon.

"Look, I'm not asking to be your XO or anything. This is your ship and we run it your way." Alenko's voice was faintly bitter, as though he _had_ hoped to be Shepard's executive officer. "I'm just asking for you to give me a chance."

Every line in the major's body strained toward the redheaded woman. It was like watching an object fall into a black hole, he was endlessly falling and, no matter how close he seemed to get, she was always just out of reach.

_Yikes, I didn't realize those two used to be an item._ Jade felt genuinely sorry for the man. It was clear from every move her body made that Shepard harbored nothing but friendly feelings for Alenko, and he was treading on dangerously thin ice there too, at the moment. _Afraid that ship's sailed, buddy._ She remembered the commander's comments in front of the memorial wall. _Twice, if I'm not mistaken._

"I _am_ giving you a chance, Kaidan. That's why you're on the Normandy at all. I could have left you on the Citadel." Shepard turned away from him and rubbed her temples. "I understand you want to go on more missions, but you're just not as well suited to all of them like you may think you are. And don't tell me you aren't still put down with migraines whenever you try to overclock your amp. I get Chakwas' medical reports, remember?"

"Alright, all of that's true, but you take that Cerberus-built freak with you on more missions than you do me."

Shepard whirled back to face Alenko, eyes blazing and a faint tracery of red lines pulsing under the skin of her face.

"That 'Cerberus-built freak' has never given me a single reason to doubt her. Since the moment she stepped on this ship, she's been nothing but straight with me. And trust me; I've had Liara check everything Jade's ever said." Her voice was low and intense as she stalked around the table to within touching distance of the major. "And in case you forgot? Cerberus used her as a _lab rat_ for some of the same tech that has me standing here right now. I've had some of what they did to her explained to me. It's enough to give you a lifetime of nightmares. She's as much a victim as anyone else Cerberus has ever used."

Alenko jabbed a stiff forefinger at her. "This is about Horizon, isn't it? You're punishing me because I wouldn't join you back on Horizon."

"Damnit Kaidan!" Shepard threw her hands up in disgust and turned away from him briefly before spinning back to face him, hands at her temples. "This isn't about Horizon. This is about your attitude since you came aboard." She began ticking items off on her fingers. "You've been running roughshod over my crew, harassing my engineers, insulting my specialists, Garrus says he can't turn around in the Main Battery without tripping over you, and now you're refusing to work with Jade at all."

She pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger and closed her eyes. "You're creating more problems than you're fixing, Kaidan. And I don't have the time or the energy to follow you around cleaning up your messes."

"I'm just trying to cover all our bases, Shepard." He scrubbed a hand across his face. "Any one of them could be a spy. Hell, even the ship's computer is a Cerberus experiment and the mobile platform it's got running around _did_ try to kill me not too long ago. You know as well as I do Cerberus likes to play the long game. Just look at what happened on the Citadel. Don't try to tell me that plan wasn't in place since before the Reapers even showed up. Or how about your buddy, Toombs? You think he'd be trusting one of those Cerberus lackeys?"

Jade had no idea what the significance of that name was, but a look crossed Shepard's face that was so black Jade thanked all the gods she didn't believe in that _she _wasn't on the receiving end.

"Get out." Shepard's voice was low, the growl of a junkyard dog scenting an interloper.

"What?"

"I said get out. You don't get to talk about Akuze. Now leave."

"Shepard I just –"

The redhead drew herself up to stiff attention, slipping from violent warrior to cool commander in an instant.

"Your concerns are noted and logged, Major." Her voice could have put a layer of frost over everything in the room. "You are dismissed."

Alenko recognized the order and the finality in her voice and snapped to attention, his face impassive as he rendered a salute. Once it was returned, he turned on his heel and marched out. Shepard waited until the door slid shut behind him before slumping against the glass wall of the conference room.

_Well, that's done. Wonder if I should– no, she's got enough on her plate. I don't need to add guilt for getting caught in a screaming match with a subordinate to it._

Jade pulled out the datapad Smith had given her with the mission report templates and triggered the door behind her, looking intently at the text scrolling across it's surface. She looked up as Shepard rapidly composed herself.

"I guess paperwork is the same no matter the century, eh Boss?" Jade said gesturing with the pad. Shepard gave her a wan smile.

"You look like hell, Harmon."

"Look who's talking. You better be careful, otherwise next mission someone will mistake you for a husk and put a bullet through your head."

Shepard let out a soft snort, her lips twisted into a half smile. "Well, at least I'll get some sleep then."

"Ah, yes, this is true. I hear the sleep of the dead is so good you'll never need to sleep again."

They stood for a moment, watching the stars as they passed.

"Nightmares?" Jade asked softly, with no trace of her earlier humor.

Shepard raked a hand through her hair.

"Yeah," she sighed. "All the teammates and friends I couldn't save haunting me."

"It's always good people who get woken by the terrors of the night. While the wicked sleep the slumber of infants and animals."

/_Commander?_/

"Yes, EDI?"

/_Your presence is required on the bridge._/

"I'll be right there." She shrugged at Jade. "Duty calls."

Jade watched the other woman leave and turned back to the window. "I should really apologize to Javik, shouldn't I?" She asked the empty room. Wisely, EDI refrained from answering.

She didn't have the opportunity to find him until after dinner that evening. She collared him and dragged him into the lessedly empty Port Observation Lounge. The lights lowered as she rummaged in the cooler for a pair of beers, indicating the beginning of the crew's sleep cycle. She ignored it and handed the prothean a bottle.

"So you have a spouse? Kids?" She asked as she cracked her bottle open and took a swig.

Javik took a cautious sip of his beverage and made a face as Jade settled herself on the sofa facing the observation window.

"No," He placed the beer carefully on the side table. "My race was coming to its end. It was not the time to start a family."

Jade hummed, deep in her throat a sound of combined agreement and sympathy.

"Probably for the best." She took another deep pull of her drink. "Warriors like us don't make very good parents."

"You speak as though you know this from experience." Javik's tone was carefully neutral, as though he didn't want to let on that he was curious about his brash comrade's personal life. He rubbed his thumb over his forefinger as she spoke, a rhythmic gesture that seemed to be a self-soothing technique for the alien.

Jade snorted inelegantly.

"I do." She drank again, to fortify herself against the memories, then lolled her head against the back of the couch. "Had a daughter once. My sweet little Ana. Joe and I were both in the business. We were constantly gone – Russia, Korea, Iraq, Syria, Germany. Joe's sister, Mary Margaret, raised her more than either of us did. We were out 'protecting our country' more often than we were ever home." A note of bitterness crept into her voice. "And when we were home? God, it was like getting to know her all over again, every damn time."

She stood and rested one hand on the window, tracing meaningless patterns on the glass with her fingertips.

"She would have loved this." Jade's eyes were far away, in another time and place. "She was space crazy. Had a couple of telescopes and could name every American astronaut from Alan Shepard on. She used to recite the names of all the stars in a constellation and tell me 'One day, mom, I'm gonna go there.' She wanted to go to worlds no human had ever set foot on." She drew a shaky breath.

"Joe and I? We did our best by Ana, but I wasn't ever in the running for Mom of the Year."

She dropped her hand from the window and closed her eyes against the pitiless stare of the stars Ana had so loved. "After Beirut, well, I was in no shape to deal with a ten-year-old girl. I could barely manage to take care of myself and I practically drowned myself in my work. Wound up signing custody over to Mary Margaret a couple of years later. She was the closest thing to a mother Ana had ever had. After that, the decision to apply for Project Birdseye was pretty easy."

She felt a warm palm on her shoulder and looked up to meet his eyes in the reflection of the glass.

"She did not blame you." The words were low and rough. "I was a child of war. My parents were soldiers. They, like you, were gone more often than they were home. Protecting their people. But when they were with me …"

He sighed. "Even as a child, I knew their work was important. Jade, your daughter knew and she did not blame."

They stood like that for a long time, staring out at the stars as they passed and remembering what once was.


	27. Chapter 27

"You know, I'm starting to get a little tired of all this 'go find the sacred toenail clippings of my people's first ruler that's lost in heavily reaper infested space and I'll give you a couple of dudes for the Crucible' bullshit."

Jade leaned out around her cover and sent another burst of fire into the seething mass of reaper forces further down the tunnel. Javik grunted in response, sliding around her to send a wave of biotic power to detonate against Liara's singularity. They moved forward, leap frogging each other and providing cover. An abomination emerged from a bolthole in the floor and dodged around the broken and bullet-riddled boulders that littered the tunnel. Liara shot it as it reached Jade's position.

"Ugh, is it really necessary for these things to explode?"

"Be grateful that is all they do." Javik picked a piece of flesh off Jade's pauldron. "In my cycle, converted vorgons exploded and their blood was caustic."

"Right, thanks for that Javik." She swapped out thermal clips and looked at the asari. "How close are we to these ring things?"

She only half heard the answer. She'd opened the files on the drive again. This time, buried in the maze of folders and meaningless strings of numbers that served as file names, she'd found information on her daughter's meteoric rise. Ana had grown into a powerful and charismatic woman. In her late teens and early twenties, she'd made a name for herself spearheading several grassroots campaigns aimed at making the inner workings of the American government more transparent and understandable to the average citizen. They met with moderate success. Then, when she was thirty and working for the Secretary of State she'd been instrumental in brokering a de-escalation of hostilities that had been building for seventy years. It was believed her assignment as the first ambassador to Iran in nearly a century was her first true step on a path to the Oval Office.

When Ana's assassination was claimed by an Iranian terrorist organization with ties to members of that government, everything fell apart, and the peace died spectacularly in its infancy. The resulting war lasted nearly two decades and spread to engulf most of the Middle East, leaving the region devastated. The U.S. had profited hugely in the aftermath.

A knot of husks and cannibals milled ahead of them, blocking the tunnel, and Jade growled in frustration.

"I am _sick_ of this planet," she said slipping to the front of the fire team and fired, nearly continuously, as she advanced on the mob at a jog. Many of her shots went wide.

"Jade!" Liara's voice was lost in the general din of moans, grunts and growls. "What are you doing?"

"Sick of this war." Jade's Mattock beeped at her. Somehow she'd used up all of her thermal clips. She slung the useless weapon on her back and tripped the button that brought an omni-blade into her fist. "And sick to _death_ of reapers!"

The cries of her teammates were din in her ears as the rhythm of close-quarters combat beat in her ears. Her curses and threats blended together in her throat and emerged as an incoherent cry of rage and despair. The inhuman faces of the enemies surrounding her took on a new and familiar form and, as she laid waste to the reaper forces moaning and flailing and clawing at her, her lips peeled back in a rictus grin as each crumpled and distorted under her fists.

As suddenly as it began, the wave ended and Jade stood in the center of the carnage, covered in gore, shoulders slumped and heaving. After a moment, she turned and met the eyes of her companions. Liara's were wide with shock, but Javik's were narrowed in suspicion and rage. Again his right hand clenched and he ran his thumb over his forefinger.

"That was foolish, human." His voice was ground glass in an arctic winter.

"Whatever, the way to the central cavern should be clear now." Jade returned his baleful glare with a curled lip and raised eyebrow. "We ready to move?"

"Yes," Liara cut in quickly before the human and prothean could come to blows. "But this time, let's stay together."

Jade gritted her teeth and nodded grimly, following the asari into a cavern that should have taken her breath away. But Jade didn't see the beauty of the delicate, carved columns and spires scattered among statuary and stalagmites that inhabited the football field-sized room. She stuck timed mines to several of the largest of the columns supporting the roof as they passed, a safeguard for their exit.

"We've got ten minutes before these babies blow, T'Soni," she called struggling to focus on the mission. "So we'd better make this fast."

"That's plenty of time. I can see the altar now."

"Great, let's get this maguffin and get the hell out of here."

/_There are two other entrances to this room. I cannot tell where the lead but they look very well used. The reapers are very active here._/

Jade clicked her comm and headed to one of the other tunnels, too distracted to reply. Just before she'd headed to the mission prebrief she'd finally found out who had suggested and approved the hit on her daughter.

_Damnit Brian, I trusted you! You were her _godfather _for fuck's sake! How could you do that to my baby?_ Blind with fresh rage, Jade adjusted the timer on the next mine and slapped it to another column. _You're lucky you're dead and dust you son of a bitch otherwise there'd be no hole in the galaxy deep enough to hide you._

A bone chilling shriek shredded Jade's thoughts and she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise as the echoes bounced around the cavern distorting and multiplying. It was impossible for her to discern the sound's origin.

"T'Soni, we've got multiple bogies incoming. Tell me you've got those goddamn rings and we can bug out." Jade went for her Mattock then remembered she was out of clips for it.

/_I just need one more minute_./

Jade swore as she caught sight of a blue glow down her tunnel and unhooked her widow. She sighted in on one of the moving shadows and prayed she hit something in the tunnel's Stygian gloom.

"You've got thirty seconds before these fine ladies are close enough to tickle you from the inside, Doc."

/_There are brutes closing from this direction as well._/ Jade could hear the whine of Javik's weapon as he fired, desperately guarding his own tunnel.

/_I've got it! Let's go!_/

"That's music to my ears, Doc!" Jade hooked her rifle to her back and pelted toward the cavern entrance. A banshee flashed into being in front of her, screaming like knives on a chalkboard. Jade jinked and rolled, narrowly missing the creature's outstretched hand.

She spotted T'Soni several yards ahead as Javik fell in beside Jade. The asari was bowling husks away, using her biotics freely to clear a path to the entrance tunnel. The crump-whump of high explosives momentarily drowned out the moans and roars and screeches of the reapers behind them.

Jade let out a pungent curse. "That was NOT ten min-"

The pressure wave lifted her off her feet and triggered the other mines seeded throughout the cavern. Her body was tossed like a rag doll as Jade's world turned to a hellish landscape of fire and falling rock. She felt her legs break on impact with a wall. Then her world faded to black as her body wrapped around a corner and cracked her head hard enough to pop the seals on her helmet.


	28. Chapter 28

_The evening light gave the kitchen the quality of a Thomas Kinkade painting as Jade paused by the sink to slip her underwear off. It drove Joe wild when she went commando, especially under a sun dress. Her brow furrowed as she caught the sound of voices floating to her down the hallway. Check-in wasn't for another four hours._

_Jade._

_Joe was probably watching television. She caught another wisp of conversation, in English. That wasn't right. She retrieved the Beretta from its hiding place in the hall table._

Jade

_She cautiously eased around the corner and glanced into the living room. Joe was at the desk, along with four other people. She made a small, startled noise in the back of her throat. Joe's head snapped up and his bright blue eyes locked with hers_

"JADE!"

She opened her eyes and swiveled her head around, looking for what had woken her. She immediately wished she hadn't as a vicious headache sprang to life in her temples. She let out a low groan and winced as the noise seemed to bounce around inside her skull and intensify the throbbing in her head.

"Good, you are awake."

A soft blue light flickered to life to her right, catching the hard planes of Javik's face and glinting off the tips of his predatory teeth as he spoke. It made him seem even more alien, if that was possible. The eerie glow highlighted all of the features, so different from the humans she knew, that could have made him look like a B-movie monster if they hadn't been contorted with worry, pain and the edge of panic.

He set the miniscule singularity to hover above them with a tiny gesture then reached to press Jade back down when she attempted to sit up.

"Do not try to move. You are badly injured."

She gratefully sank back down, nearly overwhelmed by pain and nausea. She closed her eyes against the room's sudden desire to whirl about like a demented carousel.

"What happened?" She whispered, trying to avoid making her head pound any worse.

"The cavern collapsed."

She nearly chuckled at his succinct response, but winced away before giving it voice.

"Clearly, but why aren't we dead?"

"Your explosives threw us into the entrance tunnel, along with that." Jade looked to where he pointed. A twenty-foot piece of exquisitely carved wall panel loomed over them, wedged at a sloping angle against the tunnel's ceiling and wall. They rested at its base, near where it met the floor. The far end was a mass of broken and scorched rock.

"Fuck."

"Liara was far enough ahead of the blast she made it to the entrance; she is calling the Normandy for help."

"That's a relief."

They sat in silence a moment, listening to rocks shift and grind above their makeshift shelter. A trickle of dust slithered through a crack and fell onto the Jade's face sending her into a paroxysm of coughing. In an instant, Javik was at her side, lifting her upper body and easing her into a sitting position. Gently, he leaned her back against the firm, armored wall of his chest. Her coughs slowed, and eventually stopped.

"I really screwed the pooch on this one, didn't I?" She took a cautious sip from the water tube he offered and cleared her throat.

"I do not understand that reference."

"I messed up, big time." She sighed and scrubbed a hand over her face. "The time on that last mine was wrong and I should have caught it. I went into the mission distracted and it nearly killed us. It was just sheer, dumb luck that saved us this cubby."

He was quiet a moment.

"Yes. You did 'screw the pooch' then. But you are not the only one at fault. I could sense your distraction and turmoil. It colored the air around you in muddy greens and yellows. I should have suggested to the commander that you stay. But I did not wish to seem to lend any weight to the Major's arguments and there was no indication this area would be so heavily infested. I did not see the harm in allowing you to, as the turian put it, 'blow off steam'."

Jade snorted then winced as her legs reminded her they were broken.

"Would you tell me what has you so deeply distracted you do not notice an eight-minute difference when setting a timer?"

"God, when you put it like that!" Her weak chuckle died in her throat and she twisted as much as she could to look into his face. It was no more readable than usual, but Jade had more practice than most. Finally, she sighed and turned back. It was easier to say if she couldn't see the pity and disgust in his eyes.

"I told you about my daughter, Ana, right?" He rumbled an assent. "Well, I came across some information about her life. She was a fighter and a peacemaker. I know that doesn't mean much to you, but to me, it's huge. She brokered a peace between two enemies where the hostilities had been brewing since before she was born. She stood up for the underprivileged. And she won! She was on her way to great things. Things I could never have dreamed of achieving, no matter how long I stayed with Typhon."

"Your daughter sounds like a remarkable woman."

"She was. The most remarkable. But -" A sob momentarily choked off the flow of words and Jade looked down, fighting the tears that threatened to spill over her cheeks. She stared at Javik's hand and watched his thumb trace meaningless patterns over his forefinger until she regained control of herself again. "But she never got to realize her full potential. She was muh-murdered, to start a war, by a man she would have trusted. A man _I_ trusted with my life."

The silence stretched between them, heavy with the weight of all the things she'd left unsaid. The things she couldn't say.

"Will you share a memory of your daughter with me?"

"What?"

He held up a hand.

"My people have – had – the ability to share memories. It was something we would do with our family or people we trust. This ability made ours an unusually open society. Lies were not unknown, only rare." He sighed, clearly remembering the deception of his crew. "It is not something we did lightly or without permission. It is something … intimate. I trust you, Jade. Will you share a memory of your daughter with me?"

Jade looked up into his amber eyes and searched them for a moment. "If I agree to this is it like giving you a free pass to my brain?" She squirmed uncomfortably under his regard. "I warn you, it's a dark and scary place in here."

The corner of his mouth twitched in a semblance of a smile. "I doubt it is darker than some of the minds I have been forced to commune with in my time. But no, I will not violate your mind that way."

"What do I need to do?"

"Give me your hand." She placed her hand in his odd, three-fingered one. "All you need do is think of the memory you wish to share, and I will see it through your eyes."

Jade closed her eyes and thought back to one of her favorite memories. Ana's fifth birthday. Her own grey eyes looking up at her from a heart shaped face that was topped with Joe's curly black hair shining in the candle light from the birthday cake.

She felt a tingle where their hands were linked and she saw a sort of flash. Then she was _there_ in the room watching her little girl play with her new toys and blow out the candles on her cake. Another flash and …

_Jasnik laughed as he raised his weapon and turned, five moving practice targets left a smoking ruin three hundred feet down the range. _

"_I wager a month's supply of entertainment chits that you cannot do better!"_

"_If you include the new rifle sighting modification you purchased it might be worth my time."_

"_Ha! If you can do what I just did, I'll gladly give you the mod." He reset the range, generating five more targets that swooped and flew above the range in a fast-moving and seemingly random pattern._

_I raised my own rifle to my shoulder and carefully took aim._

She came to herself with a deep gasping breath and craned her neck to look up at Javik.

"That was-"

He didn't look at her when he answered. "My brother. It is the last happy memory I have of him before I was given command of the Drazinau, my ship."

"Thank you for sharing it with me."

"I-"

A scraping noise came from the wall of rubble. Then Javik's comm crackled to life. "-er here. Javik? Can you hear me?"


	29. Chapter 29

"So we were trapped on the roof of this ridiculously tall skyscraper. I mean, you could _feel_ the sway when the wind picked up. There's no way down, all the security alarms have been tripped and the dude's got his private army sweeping floor by floor. I figure we're toast. But Joe, the magnificent bastard, decides he's going to get us a helicopter. Only problem is, neither of us can _fly_ a helicopter."

Jade was propped up in her clinic bed, braced legs stretched and stiff in front of her. The bruises on her face, faded to mottled green and brown, made her look like an animated corpse. Javik was standing near the foot of her bed. His expression was impassive, but his eyes were fixed on her face as she illustrated her story with broad gestures.

"We get into this little dragonfly-type thing and we're pushing buttons at random, no idea what we're doing. We must've done _something_ right because the motor fires up. Joe had the Devil's own luck because as soon as we start hovering, the damn wind kicks up and pushes us right over the edge of the roof and we start this barely controlled descent. To this day I _still_ can't figure out how we managed to walk away from that 'landing' but here I am!"

"I begin to wonder how your organization remained a secret if all of your missions are as thrilling and ill-fated as your stories indicate."

"Ah, they weren't all like that. You're a soldier, you know how it is; you go on a hundred, hundred-fifty smooth missions and one-fifty-one goes straight to shit. If you're lucky enough to survive it, you usually have a good story to tell later." Her eyes were a bit glassy with the medications necessary to dull the pain as her legs mended themselves.

"And yet, some elements of these stories seem fantastical, even for this period's technology."

The medbay doors swished open and Jade called out to the entrant.

"Oi! Doc! Time for more happy juice? Oh."

A tall, sinister black being moved through the portal with a sinuous grace that sent an atavistic thrill down her spine. It crossed the room, feet clanking faintly against the deck. Jade and Javik watched in silence until it disappeared into the AI core.

"Okay, either we've got a new crew member, or Chakwas has _gotta_ start weaning me off these drugs."

"The commander insisted on 'rescuing' that machine from the geth dreadnaught." Disgust coated every word and dripped from his curled lip. "Apparently, she worked with it before. I cannot understand why she trusts these synthetics so freely. In my cycle, they would have been destroyed long before they had the opportunity to develop any semblance of intelligence. Synthetics will always turn on their organic creators."

Jade blinked owlishly, caught unprepared by the venom in his voice. "Um .."

"You were still under sedation when the commander undertook that mission. These quarians lack appropriate foresight. This private war is a distraction from the Reapers." He had begun pacing at the foot of her bed, hands twitching spasmodically in agitation. "We may need the resources they are foolishly squandering here before we defeat the Reapers."

"That may be Javik, but they're already too deeply committed to pull out now without severe losses. And I assure you, I have already blistered the Admirality Board's ears, or whatever the hell they have in those helmets, about how stupid this action is." Shepard strode through the door and tossed her datapad on a desk. "How's our resident invalid? Chakwas tells me you gave Joker a run for his money for the most breaks in a single limb at one time."

/_I still have her beat by one. Gonna have to up my game though._/

Jade rolled her eyes at the camera in the corner. "Recovering and bored out of my skull."

Shepard chuckled and rested a hip against Jade's bed. "I know the feeling. I wandered around for three weeks during the hunt for Saren with a cracked shoulder blade from where Benezia threw me against a wall because I just couldn't sit still. Never did heal right."

"That's because you refused to slow down and rest." The doctor had entered while Shepard was telling her story. "Soldiers make the worst patients. Especially heroes. At least Jade's injuries force her to stay off her feet."

"Speaking of, Doc, any idea when I'll be getting my alternate sniper back?"

"I just finished speaking to Liara about the files you stripped from Lazarus Station when you rescued Jade. There were some anomalies in her healing patterns and I wanted to check if my hunch was correct." Chakwas pulled up an image of Jade's legs and gestured to several dense lines that crisscrossed the bones haphazardly from ankle to hip. "Her left leg is healing quite rapidly and will likely be capable of bearing her weight in a day or so. But her right is not nearly so advanced. It will be at least ten more days at the current rate before it, too, is combat ready. This disparity was my first clue. The next is this pattern of old, healed breaks. They are too regular for her to have gotten them naturally."

Shepard fisted her hands against her thighs as the other woman explained. "They used her as a guinea pig."

"Well, yes."

Shepard squeezed her eyes shut and her lips pressed themselves into a thin line of suppressed rage. She nodded briefly, and Chakwas took that as a sign to continue.

"According to the files Glyph has been able to recover, Jade has a different bone weave in each leg. Apparently, they kept her in an induced coma and broke her legs to observe the healing process, made adjustments to the weave's programming then broke them again. Once they were satisfied with the results, they implemented them on you."

"So, I guess the moral of the story is that I'd better not be planetside when the weather changes or I'm in for a world of hurt."

Shepard's head snapped to look at Jade where she was propped like an oversized doll against the adjustable back of the hospital bed, green eyes wide. "You're being awfully philosophical about all this."

Jade shrugged. "The way I see it, there's no way to change it now, so there's no use getting all worked up over it. 'Sides, regardless of how I got this way, these stems will be healed up a lot faster than if I'da had to do it the old fashioned way. I don't know 'bout you, but I don't fancy eight to ten weeks in traction. Also, Doc's got me on some _fabulous_ drugs. It's easy to be philosophical about things when you're high as a kite."

Shepard snorted. "Be that as it may, we need to keep Glyph recovering those files when there's nothing more pressing on Liara's plate. And I'm going to track down Miranda. We really need to know if there're any truly nasty surprises lurking in all that hardware they loaded you up with."

Then, as if thought had given birth to deed, Shepard was out the door. Jade took a deep breath and consciously made an effort to ease the death grip she'd taken on the sheets.

"Hey, Doc?" Her voice was thin with strain. "Can I get another shot of the good stuff? I'm startin' to feel my bones knit again."

Chakwas tapped a command into her omni-tool and Jade sighed as the cool relief of the narcotics coated her jagged nerves and pushed the grinding glass sensation of her bone weaves working far enough away that it was bearable again. She heard the low rumble of Javik's voice from a spot to her left, and much closer than her feet as her eyes drifted shut.

"You did not tell the commander the anesthetic properties of her own enhancements are not present in Jade's."

"I know, but there's nothing Shepard can do about it. Knowing that one of her team is in excruciating pain will only distract her."

Javik simply grunted in response. The bed lowered to a more comfortable position and Jade floated, semiconscious, in a timeless fog. There was a steady rumbling croon that fluttered around the edge of her awareness, gently soothing her. Eventually, against the backdrop of distant pain and the odd song, Jade slipped into true sleep.


	30. Chapter 30

"Good, now push against my hands."

Jade gritted her teeth and tried to extend her legs against the gentle pressure of Chakwas' hands against her shins.

"Very good, you can relax now." The doctor made some notes on her omni-tool then shut it down. "You've made very good progress in the last week. Your right leg is still showing signs of those three major fractures, but they're almost fully healed. I think we can finally let you out of that bed."

She touched Jade's knee as the operative let out a small whoop and moved to leap off the table. "Slow down! You can stand on your own, but I don't want you moving around unsupported quite yet. I want you to use this for the next day or so. That should be all the longer it will take for those bones to finish mending. You will be cleared to return to duty after that."

Jade looked at the cane in Chakwas' hands. _I wonder if I can just spend the next two days in my quarters._ She sighed and rubbed her eyes as she stood up and tested its height.

"Vega will never let me live this down."

She slowly made her way through the ship, careful not to overwork her bad leg. I may not be cleared for combat ops but that's no reason for me to be unproductive. Won't Specialist Smith be surprised! She nodded to Campbell and Westmoreland as she waited for the scanner to finish its cycle and the private to hand her cane back. _Besides, if I spend all day holed up in the War Room doing paperwork with Smith, I'm less likely to run across …_

The door swished open and Jade, distracted by trying to juggle her cane and several datapads, was still looking down at her hands when she was unexpectedly brought up short. She stared at the grey Alliance insignia against a lighter grey background that filled her vision.

"Balls."

"Careful there, Gran." He caught her arm in one massive paw as she wobbled, balance compromised by the impact.

"Thank you Mr. Vega." Jade struggled to hide her cane against her bad leg, hoping against hope that he wouldn't notice it.

"Didn't know the Dragon Lady released you. Damn, say what you want about Cerberus as a whole, they sure as hell know their medical tech. I saw your legs when they brought you in. I thought for sure you'd be out of commission for months, not weeks."

Jade chuckled and shrugged as she eased around his bulky frame where it blocked the doorway. "Won't be cleared for combat for a few days yet. You've got some time to work on your kill count before I get back in the saddle."

He gave her wry grin, rolled his eyes and turned to enter the security point proper. Jade sighed in relief.

"Only way you'll win, Gran," he called over his shoulder as the door swished shut, "is if you beat them to death with that cane."

Jade shook her head. _Should have known better._

She pulled up short again when she entered the War Room. The tall, black robot that had wandered through the medbay was towering over a console by the door. It tilted its head and regarded her with a single, shining light she assumed was its eye.

"You are a new addition to Shepard-Commander's crew." Its heavily modulated voice seemed confused. "We have no data on you."

"Probably because we haven't been introduced?" Jade ventured, trying very hard not to let the massive machine intimidate her. EDI's mobile platform gave her the heebie-jeebies because of how closely it skirted the Uncanny Valley. The machine in front of her frightened her for entirely different reasons. It towered, loomed over nearly everyone on the ship, giving even Garrus a run for his money. The sleek, black carapace seemed built for intimidation, swooping at alien angles that sent shivers down her spine and, oddly, made her think of the combine accidents she'd been witness to as a young girl visiting extended family on the farms of Middle America. Even the gaping hole in the center of its body did nothing to alleviate the sense that this machine could, and had, killed at will.

"EDI has allowed me limited access to crew records. You are Jade Harmon. Shepard-Commander rescued you from the Cerberus controlled Lazarus Station after EDI intercepted an uncoded broadcast from the station under Operative Lawson's ID. As the station had been reported destroyed, it was logical to investigate."

Jade had never known what prompted Shepard to stop by the derelict station. She tucked the information away for future examination.

"Sounds like you actually know a lot about me."

"There is no record of you before six Alliance-standard months ago."

"Legion! Stop badgering the poor woman." A being completely hidden in an environmental suit walked up and pushed lightly at the much larger machine. "Shepard trusts her and that's good enough for me."

"Of course, Creator Tali'Zorah." It turned back to the console.

"You have to forgive Legion. The geth don't really have a concept of social acceptability. I'm Tali'Zorah vas Normandy." The tiny alien held out a slender hand, Jade stuck her datapads under her arm to shake it reflexively.

"Jade Harmon, formerly of Typhon Command, Earth."

Two and a half hours later, Jade sat on a crate in the shuttle bay cleaning and performing simple maintenance on the Normandy's arsenal. Garrus stood at a nearby weapons bench fiddling with the scope from his rifle.

"You know," she said casually. "They should put that quarian Shep's got in the War Room in charge of interrogations. I talked to her today and she was like a terrier on a rat with any little crumb of information."

"Tali?" He chuckled and began to reattach the scope. "Yeah, she's like that. You should have seen her after the Omega-4 Relay. Shepard and I were trying to keep our relationship quiet. Didn't want to disrupt the crew, you know? But Tali kept badgering us, separately mind you, to tell her what the hell it was that had us smiling all the damn time. She's brilliant with code, but a little slow with interpersonal skills."

"I hear you're not too hot there either, Scars. Scuttlebutt says you went to _Mordin_ for courtship tips." Vega emerged from his cubby, unable to resist taking a friendly jab at the tall turian.

"I wouldn't say that. It was more like he swept into the main battery chattering at a hundred clicks a second about wine choices and 'mood music,' jammed a datapad into my hands then bustled out again still talking. I couldn't get a word in edgewise."

"Uh huh, sure, blame it all on the conveniently dead salarian." Javik exited the elevator with his own weapon and kit at that moment. "Hey, Buggy! How did you let a lady prothean know you were into her in your cycle?"

Javik leveled a sulfurous glare at the Marine. "I do not see the relevance of this query." He sat his case on Garrus' abandoned weapons bench and set out his tools.

"Aw, c'mon, don't tell me you were too busy fighting Reapers to get busy."

"We were not."

"Then how did you, you know, get it on? Low lights, Barry White?"

"Jesus, Vega! People _still_ listen to Barry White? I'd have thought that stuff would have finally died the death it deserved by now." Jade cocked an eyebrow in disbelief.

"You kidding, Gran? Barry's the best if you're on the make. Makes you look like you're cultured." Jade snorted and went back to assembling the Avenger she was working on. "But we were talking about protheans. So, Javik, what tricks did you use when you were on the prowl."

"We presented our prospective partners with a meal." Jade threw the alien an odd look. He was rarely this forthcoming about his people, and never in public.

"I guess some things are univers-" Javik raised his voice to speak over Vega's response.

"Of various delicacies comprised mainly of select pieces of primitive beings. Human male genitalia was very popular."

He shot Jade a quick look that had her focusing very hard on the firing group in her hands so she wouldn't laugh out loud. To anyone else in the room the severe alien was being deadly serious. But, over the long months of their oddball friendship, Jade had learned some of the subtle tells that betrayed when he was exercising his acidic wit.

Vega spluttered in shock, but Javik wasn't finished with him yet.

"The preference was for large, meaty specimens, so you might have been a good candidate for harvest. Though," he looked Vega over thoughtfully, gaze lingering speculatively on the human's crotch. The large man clutched reflexively at his fly under the careful scrutiny. "Given the apparent disparity between overall physical size and the size of human genitalia in this cycle, perhaps you would have been safe from the hunting parties."

Vega flashed through a variety of colors as Javik spoke; from a blanched, ashy grey at the start to a brilliant red at the prothean's perusal of his body to a violent purple at the implication he wouldn't measure up. Jade bit down on her tongue and tried to think of the direst situation she'd ever been in to control her reaction. Vega was still sputtering ten minutes later when Shepard stalked from the elevator with Tali on her heels.

"Garrus, suit up. We're going planetside." She looked around the gathered crewmembers, a faint line developing between her eyebrows as she took in their various expressions. "The hell is wrong with you Vega?"

The man in question instantly sobered, drawing himself to attention in response to the snap in the commander's voice. "Nothing, Ma'am!"

"Good to hear it. Let's get moving people. Cortez, you've got ten minutes to get the shuttle prepped and ready to drop."

"Aye aye, Ma'am."


	31. Chapter 31

The crew had been walking on eggshells for days when they pulled into the Citadel for dry dock. The issues Shepard has with the quarian assault on Rannoch had come to a head when the Reapers finally showed their face among the geth. It had been an uneasy thing, the peace Shepard had forged.

There had been a very tense moment after the shore party returned bearing Legion's still and silent body between them. The quarian scientist had begun agitating to get access to the "hardware" as soon as the dust began to settle on the Reaper corpse shelled to charred metal and circuits on the planet below. Shepard's response had been both pointed and pungent.

"You think this shore leave is a good idea, Doc?"

Chakwas completed her scan of Jade's right leg and signed off on her medical clearance. "That should do it. We've needed this leave for a long time, probably since Mordin died. Each time someone dies, or Cerberus beats us to an objective, or the Reapers gain more ground, it presses us all a little harder, and none more than Shepard. If nothing else, we need this leave so that maybe she'll get some rest."

"I hear that. I don't think she's gotten more than a couple of hours a night since I came aboard. I've seen people crack under less strain than she's been under." Jade stood and took the piece of plastic the doctor held out to her. "What's this?"

"You can't stay on the ship while we're in dock. Shepard thought you, and the rest of the crew deserved to stay someplace a little nicer than Alliance barracks. This should be enough to cover a modest hotel room and meals for the duration."

Jade looked up. "You sure?"

Chakwas nodded. "Go. See something other than the Presidium Ring and the docks."

Jade was still a little shocked by this show of generosity when she disembarked. The lights of the strip were garish, the colors and combinations of neon slightly off from what she expected, somehow. There was a throbbing beat that soaked the air and vibrated through the deck plates. It blended with the hum of conversation in dozens of languages human and alien. The scent of street vendors hawking dextro and levo fare, the press of millions of bodies and the strange, metallic scent she had come to associate with space stations and ships all combined to deliver an olfactory body check that was, paradoxically, welcoming and alienating at the same time.

Jade wove her way through the throng, a small bag slung over her shoulder. She scanned the crowd area constantly, looking for the small, yet clean, temporary lodgings Chakwas had recommended. Convinced she was in the right area, Jade found a spot out of the way of traffic and pulled up the information on her omni-tool. She was still trying to get her bearings when a passing pedestrian nearly bowled her over. She felt long fingers ghost over her ribs as her assailant reached to catch her before she toppled.

"Careful there, if you fall here you're likely to get trampled." A smooth, dual-toned voice crooned in her ear as the turian carefully set her upright. Warmth flared in her face then, like a living thing, crawled down her spine to settle low in her stomach. Jade cleared her throat and gave her body a mental order to behave as she disentangled herself from the strange alien.

"Well, that would probably be easier to avoid if people would watch where they're going." She raised an eyebrow at him and straightened her jacket, fingers lightly brushing the butt of her Beretta, snug in its shoulder holster. "I mean, it's not like there isn't a whole sidewalk for folks to use."

"Certainly, but how else would I have met you?"

"What? They don't have bars in this place?"

His laugh was warm honey in her ears. _When the fuck did you become a xenophile, Harmon? Wait, Joe pulled the same type of shit when you met him, didn't he. Guess you've got a type, dontcha? Wonder why he doesn't have markings like Garrus or the Primarch._

"Excellent point! I would ask if this was your first time on the station, but clearly you know what's available." The laughter was clear in his voice, but his eyes had begun tracking the crowd again. "Well if you're ever looking for a decent bar in the area, I recommend the casino."

"I'll keep that in mind." He began to move back into the flow of foot traffic.

"Hey!" She shouted after him. "You gonna give me back the credit chit you lifted?"

That honeyed laughter rolled out again and he flipped the chit back at her. It flew, winking and flashing in the alien lights until Jade snatched it from the air, grinning slightly at the turian's audacity.

She shook her head and returned to her omni-tool. After another moment of searching she found the lodgings and reoriented herself. Fifteen minutes later, she was installed in a small, but clean, room. _Small is an understatement. I've had closets that were bigger than this place./i._ She tossed her bag on the bed and stripped off her jacket and shoulder rig and hung them on the back of a chair.

She did a double take and broke into laughter that continued to plague her for hours afterward. Nestled in the shoulder holster was a child's plastic water pistol. She'd caught him lifting the chit, but completely missed the swap. It had been such a smooth play, she couldn't even be mad. Still chuckling, Jade went to take advantage of the room's generous hot water supply and private bathroom, luxuriating in the sort of solitude she hadn't known since she woke on Lazarus Station.

"So there we were, just the four of us in an honest-to-god foxhole with about fifty pissed off Russian mercs screaming for our blood and Duke leans over and tells me: 'You know, this reminds me of Budapest.' All I can do is glare at him and Bit-Monkey calls back over her shoulder, still dropping mercs, 'You and I remember Budapest _very_ differently.'"

The Normandy's enlisted crew had commandeered one of the hole-in-the-wall cafes that lined the far end of the strip for their shore leave headquarters. After the incident in the mess in the wake of Eden Prime, they had been wary of Jade but countless hands of Skillian Five and hours of conversation with Donnelly, Daniels and whoever else wandered by in Engineering later, they had begun to accept her as one of their own. It didn't hurt that she could tell them stories they hadn't already heard a million times before. Stories that had nothing to do with Reapers, or lost families, or a galaxy-spanning war that felt unending and unwinnable more often than not.

"I canna believe those were their real names, Duke, Bit-Monkey?" Donnelly was already three sheets to the wind and he glared blearily at her over the rim of his Glenlivet. "What kind of parents would do that to a child?" He winced and shifted his glare to the redhead next to him. "Och! What'd ye do tha fur, woman?"

Daniels met him glare for glare and Jade laughed, breaking the standoff before it came to blows, or anyone lost their clothes. _Those kids just need to get it over with. Maybe I should lock them in a broom cupboard on the way out._

"As far as I know, no child on Earth was ever saddled with the name Bit-Monkey. So you can rest easy, Ken. Those were their call signs. We all had them. Bit-Monkey was a tech whiz. She could write code and hack a system better than some of the pros. And Duke? Well, he was tall and blond, and blue eyed, and muscular, a real ubermensch. But what really clinched it for us when we were handing call signs out was that he was married to a redheaded gymnast and Olympic javelin thrower."

"You're shittin' me." Vega, while not technically part of the enlisted crew, still managed to spend a fair amount of time with them. "You named him after that too noble for his own good cartoon character?"

"Nice to know someone's up to date on their pop culture history. Yeah, we had a couple of folks with call signs from G.I. Joe." Jade shrugged. "It seemed to fit."

"It's not distant history," Specialist Smith raised his hand at the waiter for another round. "The networks resurrect it every couple of decades or so. The timeline for it's nearly as convoluted as the Doctor's these days."

"'Sides, you can find just about anything on the extranet." Vega looked into his glass, suddenly melancholy. "Or, you know, you could, before."

They all sat in silence a moment, the war, temporarily pushed aside in favor of the illusion of normalcy suddenly back at the fore, larger and more desperate than before. The somber mood lasted until Donnelly, on his fifth or seventh or fifteenth whiskey toppled face first into Daniels' chest.

That broke the brown funk that had descended on the café and soon ribald suggestions and stories were being traded easily from table to table again.

Jade felt the gentle buzz of her omni-tool, followed by a loud ping from Vega's. She glanced at him before opening her own message. She was in motion before even finishing it, headed for the door with the beefy lieutenant hard on her heels.

Shepard had fallen off the grid.


End file.
